


Dysfunctional Team: Pilot

by Epicenter



Series: Dysfunctional Team [1]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-20
Updated: 2013-04-21
Packaged: 2017-12-09 01:17:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 30
Words: 47,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/768290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Epicenter/pseuds/Epicenter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Swindle intercepts a transmission from Shockwave for supplies. This kick-starts a series of events for him, Shockwave, and six others.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Transmission PT 1

**Author's Note:**

> It starts a little before the flashback in Out of the Past happens. 
> 
> Special note: I started this before Season 3 aired, so expect some discrepancies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It starts a little before the flashback in Out of the Past happens.
> 
> Special note: I started this before Season 3 aired, so expect some discrepancies.
> 
> Here are some time for you all in case you're confuse.
> 
> Cycle = 1 minute
> 
> Megacycle = 1 hour
> 
> Joor = 6 hours
> 
> Stellar Cycle = 1 year
> 
> Vorn = 85 years

Cybertron is a dead place. It was once a shiny, technological world made entirely out of metal. All there was tall buildings, vast metallic plains areas ranging form tall mountains to deep chasms. The cities were once filled with a race called Cybertronians, huge robots of varying shapes, sizes and colors. It was a very lively place, but unfortunately there was much resent between two groups, the Autobots and the Decepticons.

War happen between them and left the planet in its current form. There was no longer a civilization, just a dead planet. Walking around the place, it would be very easy to find dead bodies strewn about. Most of the resources were long gone from the war and it's core was poisoned with dark energon. Because of this, most people consider it without value and have move on to other planets to either colonize or continue the war.

Swindle was not most people.

Swindle was an average-sized bot but was quite stocky. He had a tan and purple paint job with his arms and leg being tan and his chest being mostly tan with a thick purple stripe running down the center. His helm, hands, and pedes were colored a plain black and his optics were a dark purple.

Swindle considered himself an entrepreneur, a bot just trying to make a good living. To everyone else, he's probably the most dangerous and charismatic arms dealer you've ever met. He was born with a silver tongue and he knows how to use it, convincing bots that the thing he's trying to sell them was worth the hefty price and he usually accomplishes this. Sometimes, however, there are bots who think it would be easier to just kill him and take his stuff. That usually ends up being the last thing they do, as Swindle has one of the deadliest arsenals on him ranging from small blasters to high-grade explosives powerful enough to destroy a small army.

Swindle was consider a Decepticon, but that didn't mean he sell exclusively to them. He has a extensive travel history and has deal with many races form the incredibly dangerous Vok of Nexus Zero to the small, weak, and technologically archaic (to Cybertronians) humans of planet Earth and even to the Autobots, but always for a more hefty price. He has established contacts with many planets, making rather deep information network which he able to sell to potential buyers who wish to gain an edge above others or want to know the weaknesses of their enemies.

Right now, he was in his ship cruising above the ground and flying around buildings. He has become adept at flying his ship over the vorns, due to the fact that getting the stuff he was going to sell require him sometimes to steal and get out of there quickly. He didn't pay attention to what city he was in, but if he had to guest, it was probably the Autobot capital city, Iacon. There were many Autobot symbols and he passed what looked the Hall of Records. From what he could see in the darkness, most of the city was heavily damaged in some way, but were still standing.

Swindle came here to scavenge for supplies to sell to buyers and to keep for himself, if he liked it well enough. Most of the population was gone, but that didn't mean there weren't any secrets there. He had found a few secrets here while exploring, usually in the form if a secret lab or a forgotten weapons cache. Some of it was real good while others were better left to rust where they were.

Swindle kept a eye out for anything that could be worthwhile. He was running figures into his mental processors while doing so, adding up how much his latest find would earn him. The blueprint for a advance prototype medical capacitor design to greatly increase a Cybertronian internal self-repairing abilities would be very valuable, but there was a couple of strings attach to it. First off, it was a prototype, which means it was only in the testing phases. This could mean that it could have unintentional side-effects or, worse, it could not work at all and if didn't work, there would be some very angry customers. Second, it hasn't even been built yet and looking at the components for it, there was a few that some bots couldn't get a hold of, thus limiting his potential client pool. Third, finally, it was of Autobot design. Some Cons were very paranoid and wouldn't buy something if a Bot so much as glance at it. On the other hand, it could also mean that some Autobots could want it and will pay for it at a bigger price than usual.

As he was calculating the potential price, he didn't hear the bot next to him yelling for his attention…

Until he got a slap in the back of the head.

"Ow! What the slag was that for?," Swindle ask in a angry tone. He look to the right of him to gaze at the offender, a thin and short bot. He had a black color scheme with orange stripes running down parts of his body. He'd also had on a special pair of headphones and a red visor. Killshot.

The black bot looked at him and told him simply "We're getting a transmission."

"From who?"

"I don't know. Why don't you answer and find out," he said in a sarcastic tone. Swindle look at his companion and then back to the radio. He noticed a blinking light indicating a transmission. He clicked on it and the screen turn on showing a single glowing red eye.

Shockwave. Scrap. What did he want?

"Oh, uh, hi Shockwave. How are you?" Swindle ask in a polite tone. Shockwave was the Decepticons main scientist and a dangerous one at that. He was also said to be one of the best interrogators for them as well, claiming that no one has not cracked under his techniques. Given his track record, and what Swindle has seen from him, that probably isn't too far off from the truth.

"Fine, Swindle." Oh, good. He remembered who Swindle was. Shockwave didn't get all his devices by himself. Sometimes, he requires a rare component to make a device work and Swindle was always happy to provide, for a reasonable price of course.

"So, what do you need?"

"A component. I'm sending the data to you right now.' Swindle saw the data on another screen. Looked like he wanted some chemical. A very expensive chemical that Swindle just so happen to have in stock.

"Good news, Shockwave. I have some right now in storage, but they cost quite a lot."

"Value doesn't matter right now. All that is important is that I get the chemical. It is imperative for an experiment. I'm sending my location to you now." The map beep showing Shockwave's location. Swindle looked at it.

"It'll take me about a solar cycle before I can reach you Shockwave. You're all the way on the other side of the planet."

"Alright."

"You're not getting lonely are you?" He asked in a teasing tone.

Shockwave stared at Swindle before answering, "No." Not much of a conversationalist.

"Anybody coming to see you?"

"Starscream is coming to bring me some energon along with some prisoners to extract information from in a few cycles." By extract information, he meant fried their neural networks, as Swindle saw once with a meet with him. Wait. Did he just say...

"Did you just mention Starscream?"

"Affirmative."

"How long is he gonna be there."

"At the most, a joor. He will have departed by the time you get here."

"Good." Starscream was one of the few bots, Autobot or Decepticon, that he didn't want to meet with. "See you soon." He hit the button and cut the link between him and Shockwave before he could reply. He immediately set the location on his navigator and set his ship to autopilot. It should get them there without trouble. Swindle set back in his seat and wonder exactly what Shockwave needed the chemical for. Probably a side-project of his. From what he heard, he was working a space bridge as a primary goal and from what Swindle knew, the chemical wasn't use in space bridge technology.

Suddenly, Killshot spoke up. "So, we're going to see the mad scientist?"

"I guess so," Swindle replied back.

"I heard horror stories about the kind of stuff Shockwave does. A lot of those stories don't end well for anybody not name Shockwave. They say he some emotionless torture machine and a brilliant scientist. Is that true?"

"In a way, yes, but he's a lot more complicated than that."

"Is that so?"

"Yep. He's also a really valuable customer." They sat there in silence for a few cycles till Killshot open his mouth again.

"Got a question. Why were you so nervous at the mention of Starscream?"

Swindle looked at him for a moment before replying in a serious tone, "Me and him don't exactly get along."

"Don't blame you for that. I had to work with him before. He's brilliant and a pretty good tactician when he tries, but his personality really has a way of ticking you off, whether it's his constant scheming, tactical errors that a protoform could pick out, or just his gloating in general. You know, I'm surprised Megatron hasn't killed him yet."

"Yeah. Anyway, we should head to the recharge berth. Tomorrow is going to be a easy day."

"I guess so." With that, the two left the pilot's seat and head to the respected rooms for the night.

Unfortunately for them, tomorrow was really going to be a busy day.


	2. Transmission PT 2

Killshot online to the light of his room. He really hated getting up, but a job's a job. He got up rather slowly, making sure none of his gears and wires were acting up. Nothing wrong there. He was on his pedes and went to get his gear: a red visor and headphones. Killshot was a renowned snipers for the Decepticons and the gear was part of the reason why.

The visor had many jobs, the primary one being to help him spot targets that blend in a environment or a crowd. It automatically identifies and scans them for weak points, usually the helm and the spark chamber. Another important feature was the map it could provide from scanning a area and keep it permanently in its memory banks in cause he comes back. It's very useful if you're trying to backtrack a long way. It was like a computer in miniature form.

The headphones are there more for his hobby than its ability to help. Killshot is a bit of an audiophile, usually listening to the music of other cultures. He is very interested in other races music and the headphones bring it out in pristine quality. He obtains the music by uploading them or recording them to his memory banks and plays the music through the headphones with a wireless transceiver to his memory banks, being able to turn it on or off at his own will just by thinking about it.

It's also really good at blocking out the screams some bot makes when they die.

He headed out of the room and to the bridge. He had to admit that Swindle had a very impressive ship. It was a much smaller ship compared to others like the Nemesis or Harbinger, but still a pretty dang good ship having its own bridge and med-bay, not that they get use much; having a crew of only two really limits how much you use something. It also doesn't help that neither of them were medics. They only knew the basics, which was enough for small wounds, but not big ones.

The technology was also something to be commended. The machines were very user-friendly and had some extremely fast processors. It had some of the latest tech on it as well from other races; Cybertronians don't like to say it, but some races can make stuff better than them. The best example would be the blasters on the front of the ship. The best Cybertronian blasters are more than capable of making big holes in small ships. The average Vok blasters, on the other hand, take their destructiveness to obscene levels, easily capable of blowing the whole fragging ship and then some.

He walked to the door that holds the bridge, listening to his music and not caring about much else. It was a rather undeveloped planet's tribal music, mostly just yelling and banging on some percussion instruments. He was making some rather uncivilized noise and saying unusual that would probably dumb down the intelligence of anyone nearby. Getting recordings from that planet to add to his collection was difficult, considering that the technological thing the planet was capable of was making a fire and would immediately wonder "WHAT THE FRAG IS THAT" or whatever it is in their primitive language, but it was worth it to him.

Other people like Swindle, not so much. Music isn't a market he can put in a stranglehold.

The door opened automatically leading him into the well-lit blue room. There were many screens in the room and a rather large table with a sort of projector in the middle, although he wasn't paying much attention to them. Only enough to track where he's going, what he could run into, and figure out that Swindle was not in the room. He was making his way to another door haphazardly, looking like that at any moment, he would trip and fall flat on his face. Fortunately for him, that didn't happen and he make it safely to the door: the energon storage room.

He entered the room, took a sizable cube of energon, and popping a seat at the table in front of the door that led to the door which he used to enter the room with his back to it. It was going to be an easy day for him. Shockwave was not known to back stab people like certain seekers and as such, Swindle should be able to take care of it himself. He could just sit here, relax (or go crazy), and listen to his music for the whole solar-cycle.

Unless something happens, of course.

But that was something to worry about later. He just sat back, enjoying the music, and slowly taking in the energon. Yep. Moments like this were the best. Being the bodyguard to an arms dealer was an easy job with some nice benefits, such as free energon and a place to stay. He also got a decent discount at Swindle's wares. Not enough to really damage Swindle's bottom line, just enough to make a sizable difference to Killshot and a good profit for Swindle.

Swindle didn't exactly needed a bodyguard in close corners melee and mid-range shoot outs, as Killshot has seen a few times during deals gone badly. It was the far away and hidden personal that Swindle needed help with. His guns were nice and easily capable of taking down targets at close-to-mid range and in melee combat, he had short, but sharp blades that pop from his wrists that he could use to easily cut up targets. However, once he was quite a bit away, those weapons wouldn't be able to hit accurately and reliably.

That was where Killshot come in. He would stay back and use his visors to figure out if there were any hidden snipers or guards too far away for Swindle to hit. Once found, he would translate those speakers with his headset to Swindle a much needed idea of what to use for cover if things go downhill. Luckily, most deals went fine and the ones that don't were not smart enough to use tactics, thinking he was alone. It was always a fun sight to see the arrogant smirk of a bot get erased from his face when they were hit.

The music was reaching a climax now; all the voices were screaming and the drums were just getting beat harder and harder. He was caught up in it and just slowly became more entrance with it, shaking his form to the music in the chair. It was so loud and intense that he didn't hear the door behind him open in a smooth whirr.

Swindle slowly walk in to see his bodyguard shaking in his chair like he was losing a few gears in his heads and saying some things in what sounded like gibberish. He contemplated on what to do: either a) let him keep on shaking and completely ignore him or b) snap him out of his hallucination and bring him back to the real world and get some payback for last solar cycle.

It was a very easy decision. He got behind him quietly and positions his hand near his spastically moving head. He had to time this right to get full impact and a more powerful blow. Killshot still didn't sense him, just happily moving along.

Suddenly, Swindle brought his hand up and brought it down to strike him.

"OW! SON OF A GLITCH! THAT HURT!"

Perfect hit.

Killshot's headphones were off from the hit, along with his visor, and his servos were holding his head. He was rocking himself back and forth, not noticing the smirk on Swindle's face. He was very pleased at the moment. He walked away from him and head to the energon storage room to get himself a block and then headed to the computer to see how much father they were from Shockwave's location.

Only 20 cycles. Good. He headed to a large screen in the room and tried to contact Shockwave. During that, Killshot slowly reach for his headphones examine them. The hit hit him with enough force to slam his face in to the table knocking the visor off his face showing his red eyes. At the moment, he was really pissed. Here he was, relaxing, with nothing to do and his employer just comes out of nowhere to hit him in the back of the head and maybe harming his gear in the progress.

The headphones looked fine, and it was still playing the music, so it was probably undamaged. He pauses the music and put the headphones around his neck. He then grabs his visor and check it. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with it and he put it back on his head, covering his eyes. He then looked at the physically abusing employer and ask him a simple question in a rather menacing tone, "What the scrap was that for?"

Swindle replied in the salesman voice of his, "That was for yesterday's slap to the back of the head."

"Mine wasn't nearly that hard," Killshot argued.

"It was also for what you did a stellar cycle ago, remember."

"You still remember that. Come on, it was just harmless fun."

"I hardly called nearly blowing up a part of the ship fun. That, and do you know how much money that would cost to repair the ship. Now, shut up or I will deduct you pay. It would be more money for me to keep, anyway." It was days like this that made you wish you still had your old squad who do what you ask for free.

Killshot looked at him and turned away, preferring to look at the screen, although Swindle swore he heard him said "slagger" in a low voice. That was the end of that conversation and Swindle was still not getting anything from Shockwave. It was mildly worrying to Swindle. Shockwave was always quick to answer a transmission, even if he was in recharge. What the slag could be keeping him.

Killshot was slowly relaxing again. He sat back in his chair again and put his pedes on the table. He paid attention to what Swindle was doing. It looked he was trying to contact Shockwave and judging by the look on his face, he was nervous for some reason. Why?

"Hey, slag head. What are you so worried about? Is there a life threatening situation ahead I want to know about?"

"Shockwave is not answering."

"So?"

"He always answers in less than a cycle."

"He could be slow today."

"No, he always answers quickly. It could be Megatron, and the last thing you want to do would be to tick Megatron off."

"So you're saying something happen to Shockwave because he's not answering fast enough" he asked in a disbelieving tone.

"Yep."

"Yeah, right." Killshot obviously didn't believe him.

"I'm being serious here."

"Sure. Now tell me, how long have you been stalking Shockwave. Is it some heated love affair or-

"SHUT UP!" Killshot probably pressed his buttons too much. He was clutching his head, holding back the migraine he was having. He was seriously considering killing him right there and be done with him, but considering he needed the back-up, it was best to let him live, for now.

Killshot consider what to do next. Either shut up or try to soothe him. He was actually worried about him. Swindle acted like what he was saying was the complete the truth and not completely insane. Shockwave could easily just be in the middle of one of his sadistic experiments. Still, the amount of conviction in Swindle voice made actually believe him, even if he probably was a nightmare fetishist with a tendency to stalk. He finally came up with a decision to humor him and ask would could've happen.

"So," Killshot began "if Shockwave really is in trouble, what do you think could've happen?" Maybe making him think of what could've happen might help.

"I'm thinking of two options, both of them not good. The first is that Starscream, for some reason, tried to kill him and might've succeeded.

"Why would Starscream tried to murder Shockwave?"

"I don't know. He just has a tendency to be involved in stuff like this."

"Well you got a point there." Starscream always had an agenda to get ahead, even if it mean stepping on the backs of his allies. The question is what his agenda consist of and how did it play into his hand. "What's the other option?"

"Shockwave mentioned that Starscream had Autobot prisoners. I'm thinking that they might've escape and attack them."

"How could they escape?" Killshot asked in a interested tone. He had to admit, Swindle coming up with reasons why Shockwave was not answering a transmission was pretty humorous.

"It's Starscream," Swindle pointed out in a tone that sounded like the most obvious thing in the world.

"Ah, good point." This wouldn't be the first time Starscream accidentally let prisoners escape and he doubt he let them purposely escape. Starscream may be a backstabbing egomaniac, but he was completely dedicated to the Decepticon caused, even if he didn't always show. He just simply wants to be the leader and have complete power (which, let's be honest here, he'll probably never accomplished).

Swindle looked at the screen. Ten cycles till they reached the destination. Not fast enough. "I'm going take the ship off autopilot and speed us up." The autopilot had its own predetermined speed, which happens to be really slow compared to what the ship is capable of doing on manual. He keeps this pace so that every bot on board can have a nice, relaxing ride instead of a fast, not-so-relaxing one and it also saves them fuel.

Swindle took control away from the autopilot and begin increasing the speed. Killshot felt the ship speed up rather quickly. Obviously, this was going to be a shorter trip now. He measured by how fast it was speeding up that it would probably take them roughly 2 cycles to reach now.

Looks like today isn't going to be a relaxing day.


	3. Transmission PT 3

Swindle was landing the ship at a piece of land a short distance from where the building Shockwave was supposed to be. Swindle slowly decrease the speed gently, not wanting to land hard and risk damaging something. There might also be some idiots under the ship that might not realize a ship was about to land on them, but according to Swindle sensors, there was no one under him.

In fact, the sensors say that no one was around the whole area, which strike Swindle as very odd. You would think that there would be at least a single guard to alert Shockwave if there was an incoming ship. Especially if that ship happen to be an Autobot ship. It just led to Swindle thinking more and more that Shockwave was hurt or worse and his deal was about to go sour.

The ship landed with a solid thud. Swindle put the ship in power-saving mode instead of turning it off. They might need a quick getaway if things end badly and the power-saving mode would keep everything ready to go if they have to.

Swindle got up from the cockpit and walked to the door that led to the bridge. The door opened leading him to the room with Killshot in it. Killshot looked ready to go. He had all of his gear and his weapon of choice, a Null Ray sniper rifle, on his back. Killshot has upgraded his sniper over the stellar cycles making it hit harder, hold more ammo, and be more stable.

"Ready to go?" Killshot asked.

"Yeah, I just need to get the chemical. Go on ahead outside. I'll be with you shortly." Swindle replied.

Killshot follow that order quickly, heading to the exit. He reached the door and pressed a button. The door open and a ramp extended down to the ground. He walked down the ramp and looked around the area.

Cybertron was definitely not a pretty place to look at. The Sun was setting and putting a rather dreary mood to the place. The buildings around him were in a state of decay and one looked like a tap would bring the whole structure down. If one looks closely, you might find a limb sticking out of the rubble…

It was not a happy place to look at.

Killshot looked around for a place to sit, preferably away from the limb. He saw a barrel that looked like it might hold his weight and was a good distance away from the limb. He set his aft down and waited for Swindle to appear.

He wonder why would someone want to hang around this sinkhole. It didn't hold many high spots like in Iacon. Most of the buildings were pretty low, only about 4 stories high at the most. For a sniper like him, it was adequate, but not good. For soldiers and commandos, this was a haven, but for him, this sucked.

He went back to looking at the rusted limb. It looked it was red at one point. He saw servos at the end, so it probably belongs to an arm. The servos looked like they were sharp talons at one points, but now were dull blades. More than likely, he was in a battle with somebody a long time ago and lost it.

Suddenly, he heard Swindle feet walking down the ramp. He turned to see Swindle come down with nothing in his hand. Probably subspace the chemical in his chest. Killshot didn't know how, but Swindle can store a lot of stuff in his chest department. He ask about it before, but didn't get a answer from him, claiming that it was a secret.

"So," Killshot started, "you're ready to go?"

"Yep," Swindle replied back quickly. "We need to head this way to reach it. It shouldn't take more than a couple of cycles to reach it." Swindle pointed in the Northeast direction, away from the rubble with the arm. He walked off in a quick pace. Killshot got off the barrel and walk towards the same direction in a similar.

On the way there, Killshot decided to start up a conversation. "So, you've ever met Shockwave before?"

"Nope, the most we talked was through transmissions."

"Then how do you conduct deals with Shockwave?"

"He sends me coordinates to different planets and sends a few drones there to meet me. It's a pretty simple set up."

"Ever worry he might betray you?"

"Nope. He's not Starscream. He doesn't plan your downfall every deca-cycle. Besides, I'm too valuable for him. He needs the resources I'd provide to continue his experiments." Swindle decided to asked some questions next. "So tell me, which city are you from?"

"I'm from Telos," Killshot replied.

"The city with all the skyscrapers?"

"Yep. It was a decent place before the war."

"It's also a breeding ground for assassins." Telos was notorious for the amount of major assassins that spring up from there.

"Well, not our fault that it's a perfect place to snipe."

"Yeah, right. We're coming up on Shockwave's location." Swindle said. He proved to be correct as they came to Shockwave's building. It was a pretty big building, probably as big as the Nemesis and that was just on the outside. A lot of the buildings have underground areas to make the buildings more expansive. It looked sturdy, considering it looked a lot better than some of the others and was probably easy to defend.

The door was also open.

Swindle looked at the opened entrance. In a place like this, no one would leave there door opened unless they were in a hurry getting out of the building. Question is, why were they in a hurry to leave?

Swindle slowly approach the entranceway, looking to make sure there was no surprises in store for them. He looked inside to see a plain room. There was absolutely nothing distinguishing it to its owner. Only thing worth noting were the signs, which in two directions: laboratory and interrogation room.

Killshot was apprehensive. He was starting to see why Swindle was worry. He expected at least some drones to meet them here, but no one was here. Something was wrong.

He decided to break the tense silence. "So, where do we go?"

Swindle look around, trying to figure out which way to go. "I say he's probably in the lab. That's where he probably spends most of the time anyway. This way." Swindle headed in the left direction with Killshot slowly behind him.

They walked slowly down the hall, each with their weapons out. Swindle had a large blaster attached to his forearm while Killshot simply used his palm blasters. They walked down the halls until they came to a stairway leading underground.

"Well, this is gonna suck," Killshot stated.

"No kidding. Come on." They went down the stairway to a blue-tinted hallway. They walked down it with some hesitation. They already came down this far, might as well keep going. They walked in silence, keeping their footsteps quiet. There were some spaces in the wall that look like it might hold something big like a statue.

They kept walking until Killshot noticed something in one of the spaces of the wall. "Hey, Swindle. Look." He pointed to the spaced. Swindle didn't see anything at first, because was dark, but then he noticed something.

A body. Specifically, the body of a drone. Definitely not good.

The two look at each other and kept going. It looked it open up at the end. The two walk to the opening into a huge room. There wasn't much space to walk around due to a huge chasm in the middle if the room, but it was still big. There were metallic bridges to help bots move around the place and a console near the back of the room. It would be a impressive sight if it wasn't for the signs of battle.

One side of the room was cave in with blocks dominating that side of the room. There were scorch marks across the room, indicating gunfire. On one of the bridges were the bodies of a couple of vehicons, definitely dead. Near the back of the room, seem to be a lot of rubble, like a explosion went off.

The two of them walk around the room carefully. The ones who caused this much destruction could still be around. They look around the room until they reach the back of the room.

They both subspace there weaponry, looking around the area. It seemed like whoever caused this much damage seemed to have left already. Swindle was on the console, seeing what was going on here. Killshot was poking around the rubble, seeing if there was anything there worth anything.

Swindle was accessing the console's databanks. There seem to be a lot of notes here for Shockwave's experiments and on other things. The oddest thing to Swindle was a file under beast, which contains all kinds of mechanical animals on the, the most fearsome looking being a dragon-type thing. It was a very informative databank.

It was also very expensive data. Shockwave probably wasn't using it anytime soon, considering he's probably dead.. He downloaded the databanks to his memory banks. At least something good came out of this.

Suddenly, Killshot shouted to him. "Hey, Swindle! I found Shockwave!" What. Swindle hurried over to Killshot position, behind a large pile of rubble. What he found was not comforting.

Shockwave's eye was cracked. Looked like a powerful blaster hit him there. That was going to be hard to fix. He also had a lot of scorch marks all over his body, like he was caught in the middle of an explosion. The amazing thing was that Shockwave actually didn't look too bad. It looked like everything was still in place. No serious injuries were present, at least on the outside and judging from the scanners, his spark was still bright.

"So what do we do with him," Killshot ask. Swindle thought this over. They could just leave him here to tend to himself and act like they weren't here. Shockwave's data was very valuable and could be a major score for Swindle.

On the other hand, Shockwave knew they were coming, and would probably be pretty mad to figure that they left him here. He might even report to Megatron, if he could get there in his currant shape. Also, leaving someone behind who was potentially critically injured was just not something Swindle does if that person has done nothing wrong to him and last he check, Shockwave was a hasn't screw him over yet.

Finally, he came to a decision. "We're gonna drag him back to the ship and see if we can help him." Killshot looked at him as he said that and than looked back at Shockwave.

"That's going to be a bit hard," Killshot replied. And it was true; Shockwave was a big Cybertronian, easily getting up to Megatron's height and build.

"Deal with it," Swindle replied back. He went one side of Shockwave side and grab his arms. Killshot looked at him with a annoyed looked, but nonetheless, went to Shockwave's legs and grab them. They lifted him up slowly, seeing if they could hold him.

So far, so good.

The two slowly walked around the rubble in which they found Shockwave. They were already feeling the weight of Shockwave on them. They walked slowly and steadily until they came to the corner to turn out and back into the larger part of the room. They both walked around the spot…

Into two seekers with their blasters aimed at them.

Scrap.


	4. Angle of Perception PT 1

Thundercracker was not an easy individual to irritate. He's generally one of the calmer cons, able to keep his cool in tough situations. He's faced many challenges in his long life and has past most of them with flying colors.

Being around Skywarp was a life-long challenge that he was currently losing.

Thundercracker looked at the bane of his existence right now. Skywarp was a con that showed a lot of promise, but really lacked the brains to use it. He wasn't dumb; he was just dumber than Thundercracker by a lot. And he talked way too much. And he was really immature. His pranks were horrible too. He mostly just pushes people down the stairs and barely puts effort into any other pranks.

You get it.

The two were currently heading to Shockwave's base to recover any data there they can use. According to Starscream, the Autobot prisoners, Cliffjumper and Arcee, escape while under Shockwave watch and escape through the ground bridge. Shockwave try to follow them, but was supposedly kill during a ground bridge explosion.

Yeah, there were a few things suspicious about that debrief, but they had nothing to proof him wrong. Megatron was pretty upset upon hearing of Shockwave's demise. Although nothing Starscream said in his report indicating any wrongdoing on his part (of course), Megatron still blame Starscream for the failure. Before either Thundercracker or Skywarp could watch what would happen, Megatron send them out to

They were glad to leave too, because Megatron looked pissed. Starscream was so screwed whether he was responsible for anything or not.

According to Megatron, they were to head to Shockwave's base to see if they could obtain any data from Shockwave's personal logs and proved that Starscream story was true. They rest of the ship were heading to Earth to hunt down the Autobots. The two seekers were to give the information they found to Megatron by heading to the nearby planet, Dabola, where a Decepticon base was located led by the former Combaticon leader, Onslaught and he would give the information to Megatron through a transmission.

They were only about a cycle now from the base using their alternate jet forms. Unfortunately for Thundercracker, Skywarp decided to talk the whole time. It was starting to get unbearable. Thank Primus they were close to the base.

"Hey, TC, are we there yet?" Skywarp asked. This wasn't the first time he asked this.

"We're almost there. We'll be there in about half a cycle." With that answer, he relaxed and tried to enjoy the rest of the ride while ignoring everything Skywarp said.

Thundercracker and Skywarp looked a lot like Starscream, sharing his body type and being trinemates. The main differences were there colors. While Starscream was white, Thundercracker was dark blue and Skywarp was dark purple. Together, they were the main elite trine of the army, shown as an example to other trines.

When it comes to loyalty to the Decepticon cause, however, Thundercracker was probably one of the least loyal. It wasn't that he didn't support the cause; he agree with it 100%. He just didn't approve of the methods. He was more of a supporter of a peaceful solution, although he won't say this out loud for fear of it being heard by Megatron.

Skywarp, however, agree with the methods use. If you wanted loyalty, Skywarp was easily the most loyal of the three and is Megatron's favorite, even if he's dim-witted and immature. It also helps that Skywarp has the ability to teleport, something unique to him only and made some of the other Decepticons jealous.

They could see the base down. They lower there form down until they almost touched the ground and transformed back to the other form. They came upon the entrance, which was close at ther moment.

"We're here. Come on, I'll get the door," Thundercracker order. He walked ahead with Skywarp following behind at an even pace. They reached the door and Thundercracker hit the button to open the door. The door opened slowly, creaking very loudly as it went up. They went inside into the plain looking room and try to decide which way to go. "I say we head to the interrogation room," Thundercracker said.

"Why?" Skywarp asked.

"Because, according to Starscream's report, most of the computers are located in the interrogation room. Come on," Thundercracker said. With that, they head to the interrogation room, leaving the door opened. The hallways were dimly lit, but light enough to let them see where they were going.

Soon, they reached the interrogation room. The door opened automatically for them. Inside, they found a few operating tables, the computers, and some of Shockwave's personal torture tools.

Thundercracker immediately headed to computers and started looking for data. A lot of them were notes on interrogation techniques such as the perfect places to cause pain without killing the individual. One can only imagine how much practiced Shockwave had over the years to perfect his art form.

Skywarp, meanwhile, was looking at security files from earliest to latest. So far, most of what he found was disturbing videos of Shockwave performing torture techniques and boring lab tests. It seemed like Skywarp would find nothing of use until he hit the last video.

To summarize it, it was proof that Starscream was the one to let the Autobot's escape instead of Shockwave. While Shockwave was out of the room, the Autobot, Cliffjumper, distracted Starscream while the other Autobot, Arcee, broke out and strap Starscream back onto the table in a wonderful form of irony.

He was so saving this.

With that taken care of, he might as well tell Thundercracker the news. "Hey, TC, I figure out how the Autobots escape."

"How?"

"Screamer let them escape by accident."

"Of course he did," Thundercracker murmur in a low tone. He really should have seen this coming. Starscream arrogance got the best of him, again. He continue to look through the data logs. Nothing there except more data on torture techniques.

Skywarp, meanwhile, was getting bored. He was starting to sing a song off-beat and off-tune. He wanted to get out of here as soon as possible and he learned over the years that the fastest way of getting out with Thundercracker was by annoying him to no end. And it was working.

Thundercracker tried desperately to concentrate on his work, but he was losing the battle. Skywarp was just the master at annoyance and could probably count himself as a torture technique. He could probably get an Autobot to give up everything about the Autobots if that mean being away from him forever.

Skywarp had a smile on his face as he kept singing. He knew Old Thunder was losing it and would want to get out very soon. After that, they can just go to Dabola and hang out there for a while.

It was all going according to plan until he noticed the security system was beeping. He distinctly remembered it not beeping before. He stop singing and went over to see why it was beeping.

Thundercracker, meanwhile, was very happy that he stop singing. Any longer and he probably would've cave in. He kept looking through the data, looking for something beside torture techniques. He had to be doing something besides torturing people here.

"Um, TC. We've got visitors," Skywarp said a little nervously.

"What?" Thundercracker asked in a disbelieving tone. There wasn't supposed to be anybody else on this mission. He quickly went over to the security logs to see what Skywarp was talking about.

"I can't see what faction they are, but I can definitely tell they're armed." Thundercracker looked at what Skywarp was seeing. The screen was very blurry, likely because Shockwave didn't see any use in restoring them, but he could tell that there were two visitors and he could see that at least one of them had a huge blaster on his forearms. He could also tell they were heading for the labs. "What do we do?"

Thundercracker thought this through for a moment, but not too long. "We head down to labs and see whether there Decepticons or not. If they're Decepticons, we asked them what the slag they're doing here. If not, we go in there, kill them, and report back to base about them," Thundercracker ordered.

Together the two left the interrogation room with the data they obtained and head for the labs quickly, but carefuly. They backtracked through the halls until they reached the opening room. Once there, they headed towards the labs at a slower and quieter rate. They kept going until they reached the stairs, in which Thundercracker 'politely' suggest that Skywarp headed first. Skywarp, quickly getting the hint that Thundercracker did not wanted to get push down the stairs today or waste time chasing after the visitors, headed down the steps without a fuss.

They walk through the hallways, trying to find any signs of the two visitors. So far, they founded nothing. They were nearing the opening to the labs. The two silently walked ahead to the opening.

Suddenly they heard unintelligible yelling. The two stop, wondering if they were heard when they were coming. Thundercracker slowly approach the opening and looked inside.

He saw no one.

He motion for Skywarp to follow him into the room. They both turned their hands into blasters. Unlike Starscream, they preferred to use their blasters. Together the two enter the room.

It was a mess. The two slowly look around the lab. It was obvious a battle took place here a while ago. They heard voices near a large pile of rubble. They slowly walked forward to the console at the backed of the room, unhindered. The closer they were getting, the louder the voices got. The two seekers got behind some rubble for cover and aimed their gun at the rubble. The two voices were currently sharing snappy comments, unaware they were walking into a trap.

Suddenly they came into view and saw the seekers.

They were carrying with them Shockwave.

Megatron was going to have a field day with Starscream when they got back to base.


	5. Angle of Perception PT 2

Swindle judged the situation he got himself in. Here he was holding Shockwave body with Starscream's trinemates pointing blasters at them. He and Killshot were unable to use there weapons because they were too busy carrying a really heavy Shockwave. They were caught in the open with no source of cover to use.

Obviously not very good.

Meanwhile, Thundercracker was judging the same situation. Here were both him and Skywarp in cover with their blaster's pointed straight at the intruders, the intruders were currently using their hands to carry Shockwave and wouldn't be using any weaponry against them, and Shockwave was either dead or injured.

Obviously very good, minus the Shockwave part.

Killshot stood there, carrying Shockwave, looking at the two seekers. He remembers them from somewhere, but couldn't quite figure where. All he knew was that at the moment, they were not friendly.

Skywarp just pointed his blaster at them, really wanting to shoot something.

The four figures just looked at each other. Swindle was trying to place a servo on who they were. They were seekers, that much was obvious. The colors were blue for the calm one and purple for the one that smiling, just waiting to shoot something. He also noticed that they looked awfully similar to Starscream, but, they wouldn't look like that unless they were his trinemates…

Oh, scrap

Thundercracker was taking a closer look at the two. They were both grounders, as he could tell by the absence of wings on both of them. The tan and purple one was looking at him, like he just recognized him. That could either be a good or bad thing. He looked closer and saw something he wanted to see.

A Decepticon symbol on his left arm.

That prove that they were friendly, but Thundercracker didn't put his blaster down yet. They were Decpticons, but that didn't mean they were friendly. He looked at the other Con. He was slightly smaller than the previous Con and was nowhere near as stocky. He had on a pair of visors of headphones. Thundercracker looked at him and the other Con, slowly figuring out who they were. He kept looking through his memory banks until he figured who they were.

Swindle and Killshot. Now why the slag were they here?

"So," Swindle decided to break the silence "how are you today, Thundercracker?" So he recognized him too. A looked of recognition was on Killshot's face too. Good. He could skip the introductions and straight to the answers.

"Tell us why you're here?" Thundercracker asked, ignoring Swindle's question. The two grounders looked at each other before Swindle answered.

"We came for a deal we made with Shockwave a solar cycle ago." There was no harm in telling the truth. It was just a deal.

"Is that all?" Thundercracker doubted that was the whole truth.

"Yes."

"What were you going to give him?"

"That's a secret between me and Shockwave," Swindle answered with one of his trusted smiles. Thundercracker looked at him with a disproving look before continuing on with the question.

"How did you get here?"

"With my ship."

"Did you find Shockwave like these?"

"Yes, we did." This time, it was Killshot who answered the question with a very irritated tone.

"Did you find anything of value here?" Thundercracker asked.

"No, we didn't." Swindle answered, his expression and tone not touching. He really didn't want Thundercracker to know about the information he found. That was some really valuable stuff.

Thundercracker slowly looked at the two grounders, before putting his weapon down and directing Skywarp to do the same. Skywarp looked at him with a disappointing looked and put away his weapon. He really wanted to shot something today.

Swindle and Killshot both uttered a sigh of relief and put Shockwave down. He was getting really heavy. The two were resting there arm in anticipation of carrying him again. It was unlikely that Thundercracker would order them to leave him behind.

Thundercracker looked at the two with a suspicious look. They may have proof that they were allies, but that didn't mean he didn't believe them. Specifically Swindle. He was know to say anything if it meant making a bigger profit and odds are, he found something here worth something and was not telling them.

But that wasn't his main concern. His main concern was Shockwave. "So," he asked, "What's wrong with Shockwave, besides the obvious?" The obvious being the messed up eye.

"We honestly don't know," Killshot answered. "He could be experiencing some internal damage and that's about all I could think of besides the eye. The scorch marks could indicate that some of his wiring could have gotten too hot and messed up." It wasn't uncommon to get injuries like this if you were working with flames.

Thundercracker looked at Shockwave than back at the other two. "So, you were just going to carry Shockwave back to the ship by yourself?" Thundercracker asked.

"Yeah, we were, but with you two here, we could make the job a lot easier," Killshot replied.

"Wait, are you suggesting we carry Shockwave all the way back to the ship? Because, if so, I'm not helping," Skywarp shine to them. Thundercracker was having none of that.

"Yes you are," Thundercracker said.

"But,"

"No buts. You're helping. Come grab a leg while I grab a arm." Thundercracker went and grab a arm. Skywarp looked at him with a disappointing look, but nonetheless grab a leg.

Swindle looked at them during the whole conversation and finally spoke again. "Hey, Skywarp. You can teleport right?" Swindle asked.

Skywarp, looked at him with a faced that say "are you serious?" and demonstrated it by teleporting behind Swindle and slapping him in the back of the head.

"OW! Alright, so you can. Good. Can you teleport more than one person."

"Yeah, I can, but only one other person. So what?"

"Don't you get it? You can teleport Shockwave there yourself," Swindle answered. Skywarp looked at Swindle now with a smile on is face. Thundercracker and Killshot looked at each other with a look that said "Why didn't I think of that?" and immediately faceplam. They were idiots.

"I can do that real easy. Just show me where the ship is I can teleport him there."

"Alright, follow me. You two, stay and make sure that nothing happens to Shockwave while we're gone." With that, Swindle and Skywarp left to go to the ship leaving Thundercracker and Killshot behind to talk.

The two looked at each other. Killshot was sitting down on a large piece of rock, looking at Thundercracker. Thundercracker was standing up with his arm cross, looking superior. The two just stare at each other until Killshot decided to break the silence. "So, what were you and Skywarp doing here?" They knew why he was here so it was only fair that he knew why they were here too.

Thundercracker judged whether or not he should say it. Knowing Skywarp, he's already being manipulated by Swindle to tell him exactly what's going on. It wouldn't surprise him. Thundercracker decided to tell Killshot. "We were sent by Megatron to see what happen to Shockwave."

"Well it looks obvious now. He's fine, if a bit injured."

"That's not what we were told by Starscream. According to him, Shockwave was killed in a space bridge explosion while chasing after the two escape Autobots."

"So that what that big pile of rubble is," he said, pointing to the giant pile of rubble.

"Correct."

"So, who were the two Autobots that escape?"

"Arcee and Cliffjumper."

"Arcee? I've seen her a few times. She has a fine aft on her," Killshot said, thinking about the blue femme. They've never fought each other, but Killshot had to admit that she looked fine and deadly, if her kill count is anything to go by. She was the second most fearful femme out there, losing only to Airachnid.

Killshot twitched involuntary. Airachnid was one scary and disturbing individual. Whether it was here creepy attitude or here extra arms (mostly the arms), he just found here disturbing on all levels. He would best describe her as ice on fire. Hot from a distance but cold to the touch.

Killshot really didn't want to think about her anymore and got back on topic. "So, how did they escape?"

Thundercracker looked at him stilled. He saw twitching for some odd reason during the brief silence and he wondered what it was, but nevertheless answered the question. "Strarscream say that Shockwave let escape dring his interrogation."

"But…"

"But, we've proven that Starscream was the one to let escape with a extra dose of irony to go along with it."

"Really?"

"It's what the video we found indicated." Thundercracker sigh. "Starscream really going to get it when we report back to Megatron."

"Probably," Killshot agree.

With that, they stay where they were in silence. Thundercracker thinking about what will happen to Starscream; Killshot thinking when this day will be over.


	6. Angle of Perception PT 3

Swindle and Skywarp were outside the base now. Skywarp was very talkative today and Swindle was capitalizing on it, asking everything about their mission and always getting a answer. "So," Swindle was asking another question, "how do you and Thundercracker plan on telling Megatron, considering that he left you behind?"

"That's easy. We were just going to fly to a nearby planet called Dabola and get the leader to transmit the information to Megatron, but then we stumble onto you, Killshot, and Shockwave. So now, we're just going to take your ship. Nice and easy," Skywarp replied.

"Do you know who waiting for you at Dabola?" Swindle asked.

"I wasn't paying attention. Only thing I remember was the leader was someone named Onslaught," Skywarp replied.

"Onslaught?" Swindle asked in a different tone than before. This one more nervous than before.

"Yeah. You know him?"

"Yeah, I know him. We're friends, but it's been a long time since I'd seen him, though," Swindle replied.

"Why?" Skywarp asked.

"No reason," Swindle said a little too hastily, but Skywarp didn't notice. Swindle was glad he didn't notice that. What happen between them was between him, Onslaught, and the other Combaticons.... He'd really said too much to Skywarp already.

They were coming up on the ship now. Night had set in now, making the place more dark and depressing than normal. The area was silent, save for the footsteps of the two cons. The two went up the ramp onto the ship. "So, do you just want me to drop Shockwave anywhere or do you want him in a specific spot," Skywarp asked.

"We're going to take him to the Med-bay. Come on. It's this way." Swindle led Skywarp to the room. The hallways were wide enough to easily let three bots walk side by side. The two kept walk for a little bit until Swindle stop at a door. He pressed a button, opening the door. Unlike most doors on the ship, you had a press a button to enter. If someone's performing surgery, the last thing he wants is uninvited guests.

The two entered the room. It was a big room, easily allowing about ten people in the room at one time, fifteen if you're being uncomfortable. There were three tables for patients and three movable trolleys with tools on them. The room was a cool blue color, like most of the ship.

Swindle moved to the closest table. "I want you teleport him here, understand?"

"Yep, be right back." Suddenly, a blue light engulfed Skywarp and he was gone in a flash. Swindle looked at where Skywarp was, surprise. He wasn't expecting him to leave so suddenly. Now Swindle had to wait.

Swindle looked around the room, while waiting for Skywarp. He was wondering if there was anything to replicate what Skywarp just did. The power of teleportation was dangerous power in the wrong hands and those hands usually paid a large amount for it. It could be a gold mind.

Suddenly, the blue light appeared again and Skywarp reappear along with Shockwave. Skywarp was a bit off though, landing a few meters away from the table. Swindle sigh and looked at Skywarp with a disappointing looked. "So, looked like that work just find, minus the landing," Swindle said. "How are Thundercracker and Killshot?"

"They're just fine. I told them I'd come back and teleport them here." Skywarp replied.

"Alright, do that," Swindle ordered. Skywarp reacted immediately, teleporting away to fetch the other two. Swindle looked at Shockwave's still offline form. IT annoyed him that he wouldn't wake up, although it was probably for the best, considering he's down a eye and he only had one to begin with.

Suddenly, the blue light appeared again, this time with Skywarp and Killshot. Upon appearing, Killshot immediately grab his head and buckle to his knees. Teleporting for the first time was very weird experience for him and he was not ready. Skywarp disappear again to go get Thundercracker leaving the two alone with Shockwave.

Swindle went over to help him get to his feet. "You're alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. it's just that teleporting was such a weird thing. My helm hurts."

The blue light appear again, this time with Skywarp and Thundercracker. Thundercracker, unlike Killshot, was use to this and remain unaffected by it. He looked at the sniper, who was still nursing his head. "First time teleporting?" he asked.

"Yeah" Killshot answered in a annoyed tone. Of course it was his first time, he didn't have a seeker who could teleport him anywhere on a whim.

"Great, now that that's over with," Swindle was saying to everybody, "how about you help me move Shockwave onto the table." They all looked at the big scientist. This was going to suck.

They all moved into position, Swindle and Thundercracker grabbing the arms while Killshot and Skywarp grab the legs. Slowly, the four lifted him up. With four people, the load was considerably lessened. They carry Shockwave over to the table making sure that nothing was gonna make them trip. That would be disastrous. They reached the table error free. They slowly lowered him onto the table. With that done, they hooked him up to a machine to measure how fast his spark was fluctuating. Nothing wrong there.

With all that done, Swindle told everyone to leave and let Shockwave rest. None of them were medical personal and had about a good of chance at fixing Shockwave on their own as Starscream not scheming. The group followed his advice, following him to the bridge.

Together, Swindle ask the first question "So, we're heading to Dabola, right?"

"Yes. I'm guessing Skywarp already talked to you about that?" Thundercracker asked.

"Yep. I'll go ahead and contact them and tell them to be expecting us," Swindle answer. "Don't touch anything," he added as a afterthought. He went up to the radio at the cockpit, sending a request to Dabola to talk to them. Swindle had two different ways to talk to them, through video or through the radio. The Decepticons had their own private frequency that the Autobots didn't know and use that to talk from base to base using radio. Swindle got on it and try channeling them.

The other three, on the other hand, were lounging about. Skywarp was sitting on one of the chairs, tapping his talons on the table. Killshot was listening to his headphones, drifting out into bliss. Thundercracker was looking at the tech on the ship, really wanting to see what it could do.

Swindle was getting waiting for the Cons at Dabola to answer. He was growing a bit impatient, but did nothing to show it. In a deal, you got to keep the happy, friendly facade until the clients were gone, not to say Swindle wasn't happy with his life. Just that some clients and employees had a way of pissing him off.

Suddenly, a voice on the other end answers. "Hello? Who is this?" Onslaught.

"Hey Ons, how are you?" Swindle asked. Onslaught was silent on the other end of the line. Swindle was wondering if he turn his radio off before he answered again.

"I'm doing fine Swindle. What are you doing."

"I just came to tell you that I'm coming for some medical aid and a couple of my passengers want to give you some information to give to Megatron."

"Medical aid? Passangers?" Onslaught asked. Swindle answered accordingly.

"The medical aid is for Shockwave. He was injured pretty bad in a blast and is currently offline."

"Shockwave?"

"Yeah, I know. Long story. Skywarp and Thundercracker are the two seekers who are going to give you information."

"Skywarp and Thundercracker too? I knew they were coming, but I'd didn't know you would be escorting them."

"I'm not. We just happen to ran into each other. I'd never intended to work with them."

"But things change," Onslaught interrupted. Swindle looked mournful at that. Things do change often.

Suddenly, Thundercracker interrupted the two. "Um, Swindle, you might want to look at this." Swindle was annoyed by him, but quickly went to see what was up.

"Hold on Onslaught, got to look into something real quick." He got up and follow Thundercracker back to the bridge. Thundercracker was explaining some things.

"While you were trying to get a hold of the Cons on Dabola, I decided to mess around with your big screen, trying to see how it works."

"YOU WHAT!" Swindle yelled. He expected this from Skywarp or his employee, but not from Thundercracker.

"I use your equipment," he answer in a slightly bored tone, like he had to deal with this attitude before. "I was just checking it out. It's pretty easy to use. Anyway, when I use the map function, I noticed something."

"What?"

"Let me show you," he answered. He went to the screen and pressed a button. Suddenly, a 3D-holographic image showed up on the table, showing Cybertron.

Skywarp looked at it in awe. "We don't have this on the Nemesis. How come we don't have."

"Because it came from the Vandrians, and let me tell you, that cost a whole lot," Swindle answered. "Now tell me what I'm seeing here."

"Well, I found something odd," He pointed to a spot that was beeping yellow. "I don't know if that means anything, but I'd figure it was probably important."

Swindle looked at it and answered. "It's a signal, from a Cybertronian ship."

"It is?"

"Yep, now the question is why is it here?" Swindle question.

"Maybe they're scavenging, just like you. Looking for things to use." Thundercracker said, trying to find a logical reason.

"Maybe or they are Autobots looking for something." He clicked the area to see where it was located at. The planet disappeared, now showing a city, with many tall buildings.

A look of recognition showed on Killshot face. "Hey, that's Telos. What's it doing there?"

"I don't know," Swindle answered. Killshot looked frustrated.

"Well than, let's go find out," Killshot snap back at Swindle.

"No," Thundercracker intervene, "We've got a job to perform and the next thing we need to do is head to Dabola and report to Megatron."

Skywarp decided to intervene too. "I say we go there. I'm getting bored and what's going on there could be fun," Skywarp offer his opinion. Thundercracker was looking at the two of them, wondering how to get them to side with him.

Suddenly, Swindle decided to speak too. "Look, everybody, I'm captain of this ship. I decide where we're going and I'd said we're going to Telos." The look of annoyance of Thundercracker face was evident. "If you got a problem, than I recommend keeping it to yourself." He directed that statement at one blue seeker.

Swindle went back to the bridge, ignoring the looks Thundercracker was giving him and the high-fives Killshot and Skywarp were giving each other. He went back to his conversation with Onslaught. "Hey Ons, I'm back. Look, we're going to be a little late. We're picking up signals in a city called Telos over here on Cybertron. We're going over there, check it out, see if there any Autobots there, and then come to you, alright.

There was a sigh on the other end. "Alright Swindle. Just come back in one piece. I don't want to lose anyone else." Swindle could understand that sentiment.

"Don't worry, Ons. It's just a quick check-up. I'll be find. I'll come back in one piece," Swindle said, trying to comfort Onslaught.

"You better. Onslaught out," The line cut off at the other end, leaving Swindle with static. He turned it off and set a course to Telos. He judged that they were going to be there in 30 cycles. The ship got off the ground and head off.

Today just gets better and better.


	7. Telos PT 1

Telos, back when Cybertron was more alive and less dead, was quite a beautiful place. The neon lights were everywhere and were beautiful. The buildings were the so tall that they lorded over the other cities. They weren't just skyscrapers, they were sky-piercers.

The architecture was also some to commend. There were plenty of places to fly, sure, but it was also a freerunner's paradise. There were long pipes, jutting pieces of metal, small platforms, even the neon signs were use to help grounders move around the area with ease. You could almost say it was a living being. The cries of joy from the freerunners ran rampant around the area.

Unfortunately, the neon signs and bright lights were only there to obscure the darker side of it. It's was called a assassin's haven for a reason. The architecture was use by some of the freerunners for helping them with assassinations instead of fun. Its architecture meant lots of points for snipers to use and political assassinations were rampart due to the city corrupt officials. Most taking bribes, while other officials got rid of their enemies through assassins.

Killshot loved it.

They were nearing Telos now. Everyone was looking out through the cockpit window at the city. The legendary tall building was still standing, although it's tough to tell how stable they were from a distance. It's was still dark outside, but the stars help made the area more visible.

"So," Killshot began, "do we know how big that ship it is?"

"From what the sensors shown us, it was a small ship, probably big enough to transport 2 people," Swindle answered. "How well do you know the city?"

"Like I do my gun. I can probably move around the area easily. You, not so much. The seekers can fly around the area."

"So, I guess that means I'm staying on the ship while you guys investigate the other ship."

"Yeah... wait, what?" Killshot looked at Swindle with a questioning looked. Swindle happily provide a answer.

"It's like you said. I don't have much experience in moving around a city well with this architecture. You, on the other hand, had live here for a good portion of your life and know the area really well and can move around the area effortlessly. Thundercracker and Skywarp, on the other hand, can just fly around the area and in between the buildings."

"He raises several valuable points," Thundercracker said, supporting Swindle. He admits, it was a pretty solid plan.

"I always know what I'm doing. Sure, I may not be as good strategist as someone like Onslaught, but I know what I'm doing. Now, can one of you check on the ship's specific location and I'll drop you off there." Thundercracker obliged to Swindle's request and went to check on the ship's location. When he looked on the map, however he didn't see the ship, yet the signal indicated the ship was still in the area.

"I think we got a problem." Thundercracker said to Swindle.

"What?"

"I can't pinpoint the ship's specific location, but the signal indicates that they're still in the city."

"They could be using a type of jammer device, although a cheap one, considering we can still see that they're still in the city. Probably means that it's an Autobot ship considering not many neutral ships have jammer capabilities in the first place." Swindle said.

"So what do we do?" Skywarp asked for the first time in the conversation, raising a good point. What were they going to do?

Thundercracker had an answer, apparently. "I say we split up, each of us taking a different sector while Swindle stays high above the buildings, making sure no one leaves." The other three looked at each other. It was a good plan.

"Alright," Killshot spoke, "how are we going to do this?"

"I recommend that you take half of the city, considering you've lived here before and know it quite well, while Skywarp and I take the other half."

"Ugh, I got to take half of the city by myself? Hope I can remember the shortcuts."

"Alright then, You will take the south side, I'll take the northwest side, and Skywarp will take the northeast side. Swindle will watch and make sure that they don't leave without us knowing."

"Great. Just to let you guys know we're approaching the city right now from the south side. Anywhere you want to drop off, Killshot?" Swindle asked. Killshot looked up at the buildings coming. Most of the windows on them have been broken from the war and some of the buildings didn't look the best in condition.

"Take me to the top that yellow building over there. I'm pretty sure it has a ladder to help me get to the street." The yellow building, whose color was a bit hard to see but still viewable, in question was quite a bit smaller than the other buildings, barely qualifying as a skyscraper. Its location was on the edge of the city. Everything south of it was just metallic plains.

Swindle did what he wanted and headed towards the building. Killshot left the cockpit area and head for the ship door.

"One more thing." Thundercracker said. Killshot looked at him in a questioning glance. "Don't do anything stupid like Skywarp is sure to do (HEY!). Please radio in for us if you see the ship. I don't want our first mission together ending with you getting kill by stupidity."

"Don't worry, this is my city. I know what I'm doing and will always follow my orders."

"You mean like in Veldin?" Swindle asked in an amused tone.

"Hey, that was a onetime thing!"

"No, it wasn't. I got of all the time you disobey my rules. Luckily, none of those were during deals, which is a good thing I guest. It means you know when to actually follow them. Just think this as a deal, only with less profit and more action." Swindle said, sounding noticeably sadden at the part when he mention less profit. Maybe the enemy's equipment or ship will have something valuable?

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Just get me to the fragging building." Killshot said and left in a huff. He walked through the bridge, through the hallways, and reached the door. He open the door, this time with no ramp. He looked outside to see the yellow building. He quickly jumped out of the ship onto the roof of the building. He radioed in to Swindle. "Alright Swindle, you can go now. I'm on the building."

"Good. I'll take Thundescracker and Skywarp to their drop-off spots and keep floating around the city. Don't get killed, alright. It's hard to find good help these days." Swindle answered over the ship's comm. to Killshot's headphones. The ship left, leaving Killshot by himself. He played some thinking music and headed to the north side of the building. When he reached the edge, he found what he was looking for: a ladder.

Killshot was not going to take the whole ladder down to the street. That would take way too long. Instead, he would use it to get to a spot where he can hop around a lot and move above the streets.

He crouched down and reached for the ladder. It felt sturdy. He turned his body around and slowly got in position on the ladder. With that done, he walked down the ladder, step by step, not noticing that the connectors were weaken and significant weight for a while would break it.

He started thinking about the ship. It had to be a small when just to move around the city, thanks to all the obstructions. Telos was mostly land vehicles instead of air vehicles, like most cities. All the obstructions would make driving a ship very difficult and you would waste too much of your time just trying to fly around them. The pilots definitely had some bearings on them.

He went down, more and more, not hearing the creaks the ladder was making. In was too busy thinking about the ship and the electronic beat his headphones were making.

'What about Thundercracker and Skywarp' he thought to himself. Anybody related to the treacherous Starscream would have to be watch over carefully, especially Thundercracker.

The ladder creaked louder, but Killshot still didn't noticed.

'What about Swindle. When will I be done with him?' he wondered to himself. Swindle was his only source of income, energon, and shelter at the moment. He knew sooner or later, he would be done working with Swindle and get back to doing more violent jobs. The deals were starting to get more predictable as the days go by and Killshot desperately wanted a reprieve. That was his only reason for coming to this destroy city in the first place, to break the monotony of his currant life, just like he did when he wanted to work with Swindle, just like he did when he became a sniper for the Decepticon, just like when he became a political assassin.

And the list goes on.

CREAK!

That got his attention. He looked up to see that the top of the ladder had broken off from the building and was leaning away from the building.

Not good.

Killshot hold on as tight as possible as the ladder lean more and more, becoming slightly more horizontal. It was going to crash in the building across from it, Killshot knew, but that didn't stop it from making the experience less terrifying. It came closer and closer to the building…

Suddenly, it crashed. Killshot heard the shattering of glass as the ladder impacted the building. Sounded like a pane of glass just loss the 'longest standing pane of glass' award, a very prestigious one. Too bad.

Killshot relaxed a bit as the ladder was now non-moving. He was currently inbetween the two buildings. It was probably a good idea to get off before something really unexpected happen. He looked around searching for a place to jump. He noticed a large, square platform in the west direction that he could easily jumped to by using a horizontal bar to swing to it and it looked like it went to more avenues of movement.

Killshot got on the other side of the ladder. It provided him with better a batter range of mobility. He steady himself, wanting to make the jump perfect and not accidently slam into the ground and make a blue spatter. He leaped, grabbing the bar. It hold his weight. He started moving his body back and forth, gaining momentum. He released his hands from the bar and swing off to the platform.

Not too shabby.

Killshot looked around. It looked like another platform was just a swing away, only this one was a long, small one, going around the corner of a building. It was perfect.

Before he'd jump, he looked at the area around him. No ship was flying, and he was hearing nothing, but that could've been because he didn't turn off his music. The ship definitely wasn't around the area.

With that, he put his attention back to the platform and leaped to it.


	8. Telos PT 2

Swindle was flying to the other side of the city, now. He was currently flying over the city and, thanks to the city's building heights, the ship was almost in space. "How the heck do cities get this high?" he asked himself out loud.

"I don't know,' replied the voice behind him. Swindle looked at Thundercracker momentarily and then went back to look back out the windows of the cockpit. "How much longer till we reached the center of the city?"

"In about a cycle. The city is tall, but it's not very big compared to other cities like Iacon." Swindle answered.

"Good, I really need to shoot something," Skywarp said behind Thundercracker, offering his educated opinion.

"Skywarp, I asked that you not shoot them if you see them unless they shoot at you. When you see them, stay hidden and asked for back-up over our internal comm. channel and we'll be there as quick as possible." Thundercracker ordered him. He was not in a mood for Skywarp's antics today. He just wanted to take care of this problem as soon as possible and then get Shockwave to Dabola for some proper medical care.

"We're coming up on the center of the city," Swindle interrupted them. "I recommend you guys get to the door and fly out. Skywarp will lead you to the door Thundercracker." The two seekers look at each other before heading out to the door with Skywarp humming a little tune and Thundercracker following silently, leaving Swindle by himself.

Swindle slowed down the ship. They were at the center of the ship now. Swindle laid back in his seat, waiting for confirmation from Thundercracker that they were out of the ship. Knowing Skywarp, it might take a while to lead Thundercracker to the door.

Swindle turned on the computer in between the two seats. This computer, along with several others in the bridge, holds non-sensible information to Swindle. He went to a file that said 'cities of Cybertron' and opened it. He went through the list until he found the file on Telos. He clicked it and opened it, looking for information about the city.

First, the population. It once hold over 200,000 Cybertronians. About 50% were middle class, 30% upper class, and 20% lower class. A bit unusual, considering there's usually a lot less upper class and a lot more lower class in other cities.

The architecture was interesting. It shape itself like it was a living being creating what it wanted instead of other cities. Apparently, a bunch of scientist have hypothesize that it is actually living.

At least, it would be, if the core of Cybertron wasn't completely dead now.

The government inside it was interesting. There was a lot of corruption going on. A lot of the middle class were bribe by the upper-class politicians to do what they want, and the lower class really couldn't do much. The upper class had a bunch of feuds with each other, leading to a really high assassination rates. Politicians prefer to have someone else do the dirty work instead of them.

The internal comm. system in Swindle buzzed. "We're outside of the ship Swindle," Thundercracker said over the comm. "I'm heading northeast while Skywarp is head northwest. Best to head outside the perimeter Swindle."

"Alright. Tell me when you're ready to go. Try not to get killed out there." All was silent on the other end.

Swindle went backed to looking at the data on Telos. Nothing of real importance to look at except for information about the Freerunners and a list of assassinations. A really long list of assassinations. Swindle closed the screen and headed for the perimeter.

Hopefully, they can get out of here soon. Swindle was getting real tire of things interrupting what was supposed to be a simple deal. Just give the chemical to Shockwave, get the money, get out, and continue on to the next deal. Instead, he finds Shockwave injure and two seekers who want answers. Now, they were at a city in which the enemy is capable of slightly jamming there signal and having them waste time Swindle could be using by getting rich. Honestly, was it that hard to get a nice, simple deal to go right?

He was going to rage later on his log. Honestly, no one should have to put up with these. Yeah, the life of an arms dealer was exciting and offers a whole lot of perks, but it also has a lot of stress to it and a lot of variables when striking a deal. There were a lot of variables, most important being 'how much money can you make?' follow by 'are they going to try and screw you over?'

Swindle really couldn't remember much about how he started arms dealing. He knows what he did previously. He was a bureaucrat at Iacon design to make peoples life the pits. He check to make sure that all the little mechs and femmes were paying the taxes they were paying. If they weren't, one called to the police and they were taken care of.

It was fun, helping to decide people's fate. And he guessed he's was helping to decide people fate now by giving them much needed equipment to take out someone else. Guessed he was a giver and taker of life. Didn't matter.

All that matter was the profit.

XXX

Skywarp was flying around the decaying city. He was currently having fun. The obstacles were fun to fly around and filled with a sense of joy.

Seekers naturally loved flying. It was in them to fly. They really hated being on the ground for too long. There was a illness for it called flight deprivation. When seekers don't fly for a extended amount of time, they start getting headaches and don't fill well in general. They looked for anything to simulate the experience of flying. It also wasn't unusual to see some of them hallucinate.

There has been more than one case in which a seeker who couldn't fly jumped off a building thinking he could.

Skywarp didn't really care at the moment where he was. He was just looking for that stupid ship and having fun too. Thundercracker may complain later about the need for Skywarp to indulge himself, but he didn't care. He just wanted to have fun.

That, and kick any Autobot aft while they were at it.

You can call Skywarp many insulting things if you want to, but one thing that everybody agreed on that was not true was that Skywarp was not loyal. Unlike a certain other Seeker that began with star, he was completely loyal to the Decepticon cause. He was definitely one of the biggest supporters of the Decepticon caused. He was also one of the saner Decpticons. Childish and a bit trigger-happy? Sure. Insane? Definitely not. Although, when compared to Thundercracker, you probably said he has a few screws loose in his helm.

Skywarp duck under a long pole than rolled left away from a sign. Skywarp was really enjoying this at the moment. He should try convincing Starscream to come here sometime and practice their flying.

As Skywarp was flying, he noticed something odd. A light in a building was on. Sure, seeing lights on in most places was a constant reminder that there were people there, but this was Cybertron. Everybody here is gone and probably won't be coming back. The light made have been left on, but they should have died by now. Lights don't last that long. Sooner or later, they had to be replaced.

Which mean one of two things: 1) someone was there right now or 2) he was there and left, but forgot to turn the lights on. Either way, Skywarp was definitely checking this out. He decided to comm. Thundercracker about this just to make sure he'd stay happy. "Hey, TC. I think I found something interesting." He waited for a response.

"What?" he asked.

"There is a light on in a building. I'm going to go check it out."

"Wait a second. Let me help you."

"Relax, TC. I can take care of myself. Besides, I don't see the ship around, which means that they're probably not here." Skywarp was being strangely smarter than usual with that sentence.

"Alright," Thundercracker agreed. "Just make sure to buzz me if you need help."

"You got it." With that taken care of, Skywarp headed to the window with the light on. From what he could see, the glass was already broken, which didn't surprise him at all. Most windows were broken thanks to constant warfare. Skywarp slowed down a little and as he approached the window and then switch to his bipedal form as he enter.

He looked around the room. Looked like an office room of some sort. Pretty bland and without personality, char marks and debris notwithstanding. Near where he came in the window a computer that was on and still working.

That was unusual.

Skywarp approach the computer, making sure there was no 'special surprise' for him. Looked like there was still a chair there. He sat in the chair and started accessing the computer.

He immediately noticed a problem. The whole hard drive was wiped clean. That was going to make things a little harder to figure out what the heck going on around here.

"Hey Swindle," Skywarp comm. him.

"What?" Swindle replied.

"Can you tell me what building I'm in?" Skywarp asked.

"Sure. Just give me a second to look at the map." Skywarp waited, tapping his talon on the desk. "Alright, I'm back. Apparently, you're in a research building. Why did you wanted to know?"

"I found a working computer with the hard drive wiped clean and I want to know what kind of information would be on it."

"Well, more than likely, you would find schematics or information for various things." Swindle answered.

"Do you know what?"

"Maybe. Hold on. Let me see. Ah, Found it. According to the blueprints, you're in the research area for explosives."

"So, what? They were planning on bombs."

"Probably. What type, I don't know."

"Okay." Skywarp sigh and leaned back in his seat. Well, this was not good. More bombs for anybody besides Decepticons was not a good thing. He looked around the room in thought until he noticed something.

The security cameras were still working.

"Hey Swindle. Can you lead me to the security rooms?" Skywarp asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"The security cameras are still working somehow. We might be able to figure out who was here."

"It's still working? Wow, they must have gone and fixed the generator to the whole building. The computer probably wasn't working when they got here. Hold on." Skywarp got up and walked around, waiting for Swindle to give him instructions. "I'm back. You're on the 34th floor right now. The security room is all the way at the top, about 30 floors up. Just fly up there and enter through a window on the west side."

Skywarp happily obliged, immediately leaving through the window and switching to his jet form in mid-air. He flew up quickly and was there in seconds. He entered through the window and transformed back to his regular mode. The room was just like the last, sans all the computers working.

He went up to one of the computer screens and see if it was working. It was and Skywarp quickly access the security footage. "Hey, Swindle, which room was I in before?"

"You were in room 3487," Swindle answered almost immediately.

"Okay," Skywarp replied, trying to figure out how to work the stupid things. After about five minutes, he finally managed to get to what he wanted and looked at the footage. He rewind it, trying to find out when they were here. He rewind it pass his entrance and looked at nothing for a little while until he found what he wanted.

The footage showed a seeker, to be correct, a black and red one. He was about the same size as Dreadwing, looking a little smaller. One unusual thing Skywarp noticed was the lack of a Decepticon symbol on him, which was unusual for seekers considering most of them aligned with the Decepticons during the war.

Skywarp downloaded the footage and started heading out, contacting Thundercracker along the way. "Hey TC. I think I found out who was here." He waited, expecting to hear Thundercracker voice. He waited a cycle, before asking again. "Hey, Thundercracker, talk why don't you." Full name now. He was being serious and yet he still receive no answer. "Come on man, this isn't funny unless I'm the one doing it." Nothing once again. Skywarp was getting nervous.

"Hey Swindle, you're there," Skywarp asked. Maybe there was something wrong with his own internal comm. link.

"Yeah." Frag.

"Hey, Swindle. Can you find Thundercracker? He's not answering me and it's really ticking me off." Skywarp asked with a hint of anxiety in his voice.

"Yeah, hold on." He waited. "He's outside the city's perimeter for some odd reason. Near the northwest corner." Double frag. "He's not moving, either." Triple frag.

"I'm heading there right now,"Skywarp said, jumping out of the window.

"Yeah, okay. I'm sending Killshot over there to help you," Skywarp wasn't listening at that point. He was just trying to getting there as fast as possible.

Thundercracker had better be okay.


	9. Telos PT 3

Thundercracker was not having a good time.

Right now, he was flying around the buildings and the obstacles trying to avoid another seeker trying to blow him away. From what he could see in between all the dodging, the seeker was a black and red color and a bit bigger than him. He also was good at dodging the obstacles too. He was near the edge of the city now and his enemy wasn't letting up.

Obviously, he was hostile and a annoyance to Thundercracker and had to be eliminated, Autobot or not.

With that said, he tried to contact Skywarp. "Skywarp" he said into his comm., "I need help here. I have a enemy contact here and I need help. Do you understand?" Static filled the other end of his line. "Skywarp?" Still static. Time to try someone else. "Swindle, you're there?" Static filled Swindle line too. The enemy seeker took another shot at him, barely missing. "Killshot, you're there either?" Static on his end took in the new information. He couldn't contact anyone which meant one of two things have happen.

1.) They were all taken down in one form or another. Thunedercracker immediately dismiss that idea since – slag, that one almost hit him – they were all smart to call for help if they were in trouble and they were all capable individuals.

2.) and the much more likely option, there was jammer around the area, whether in the landscape or on the other seeker, that was blocking his signal and making him unable to communicate with anyone. On the flip side, it meant that the enemy couldn't contact anyone either.

Thundercracker was coming up with a plan to take him out now. What to do? Try to lose him in all the buildings? No, the seeker was skill in maneuvering and that would probably take too much time to avoid him. Try to flank him? Maybe, it would be difficult, but not impossible. He could use these buildings to his advantage and flank him around a building.

While Thundercracker was thinking things through, the other seeker was lining up his sight. He was making sure that this shot will him. It was difficult, considering all the dodging that they both had to do out of necessity of the environment they were in, but he was confident he was going to hit the blue seeker with this shot. They were almost at the end of the buildings which would lead to the outskirts of the city.

He took the shot.

Thundercracker falter in his flying. The shot hit him right in the wing, setting it on fire. He tried to steady himself, only to get shot again in his other wing. He was descending at a rapid rate, trying to hold it all together. He was about to crash.

Thundercracker transform right before he hit the ground, trying to land on his pedes. Unfortunately, he lost his balance and trip as he landed…

and impaled himself on a pipe sticking out of the ground.

Thundercracker let out a scream as the pipe went through his body. It went straight through, probably hitting something important. Thundercracker had been stab before, but never by tripping, really hitting his pride. He grasp his servos around the pipe out of instinct. He looked at it. It went completely through, jutting out of his body. It made him a little sick looking at it.

He looked around his crash site. He was a little outside the city now. Maybe Swindle could help him if he comes fast enough. The night sky was still there. The stars were out, shining upon the city and him. It was beautiful.

Static was lightly filling his vision now. The pipe must've really hit something vulnerable. Thundercracker try to remove himself from the pipe, much to his discomfort. He slowly pull himself off of the pipe and flip over on the ground, face-down. He was in a lot of pain now and the other seeker was dropping down. Unfortunately, for Thundercracker, that was the last thing he saw before the static filled his vision and slipping into unconsciousness.

The black and red seeker walk over to the down blue seeker, looking him over. He was temporary offline and wouldn't be offline for a while. He turned off the jammer on him and contacted someone, making plans.


	10. Awe PT 1

Killshot was currently jumping through the city, jumping platform-to-platform and using the bars to swing through the area. He got the called from Swindle to head Thundercracker location and was heading there right now. It wwas going to take him a while, but he would get there quickly. Not as quick as a seeker though.

He reached an intersection between two streets. The sky was still dark and the buildings put the area in a shade, making it hard to see where to go. The dark would be trouble to most people, but Killshot's visor had night vision, letting him see in the dark pretty easily.

He heard something. He listened closely. Sounded like jet moving at high speed. 10 credits says that was Skywarp. Seekers also hadnight vision so that they can do night missions. Probably moving so fast, he could easily get there way before him.

Killshot got an idea.

"Hey, Skywarp," he commed for his attention.

"What?" Skywarp asked, a nervous tone in his voice. He was definitely worried about Thundercracker.

"Can I hitch a ride on you?"

"What?!" Skywarp yelled.

"It would make things a lot easier. We can both reach Thundercracker at the same time and if he's in trouble, I can back you up. Understand?" Killshot finished his idea. Silence filled the other land of the line until Skywarp answer.

"Yeah, if you can hang on. Where are you?"

"You're coming up on me. I can see your flames right now." And he did, too. He could see a light coming very quickly. "Slow down a bit, will you."

"Not happening. Faster I go, the sooner I can get to Thundercracker. You're going have to jump on me."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes."

Killshot sigh in annoyance. He got to the end of the platform, waiting for the light to get closer. He was going to have to time this perfectly in order to land on Skywarp. This was insane, but Killshot was a bit of a thrillseeker.

The light was almost there. Killshot crouch at the edge, about to jump. He quickly went through the probabilities through his head of him making it. The odds were not good. Only a couple more clicks.

He jumped.

Time felt like it slow down for him. It was a euphoric felling. He was in the air, slowly heading towards a spot in the air the seeker was going to be at. He could felt the pulses through his wires. The jet was coming closer and closer. He slowly touched the seeker.

And just like that, time went back to normal and Killshot was holding on for dear life. He knew that it was going to be fast, but he didn't know it would be this fast. He was used to running or driving through the streets, not hanging on for dear life as a jet speeds up to ridiculous levels.

"Hang on there," Skywarp warned. "If you let go, I'm leaving you behind." Killshot would of respond, but he was busy at the moment. He decided to just curse the seeker out in his mind.

XXX

Swindle was also flying to the spot. His ship was going quickly and soon he would reach the outskirts. He was anxious at the moment. If something bad happen to Thundercracker, Starscream was going to be pissed off at someone and would direct that anger of his to the person responsible, A.K.A. Swindle. Whether Swindle like it or not, Starscream was second-in-command and held a lot of sway with people. He could convince people to work against him and make his life the pit.

He looked at Thundercracker's location on the map again. He was still at the exact same spot. He was probably either knock out, too injure too move, or a combination of both. He looked at Skywarp and Killshot's location now. They were both together and going at a rapid pace. Probably only a cycle now before they reach Thundercracker.

Wait a second, how were they both going so fast?

"Hey Skywarp and Killshot?" Swindle commed them.

"Skywarp here. Killshot a bit busy at the moment and can't talk. What do you need?" Skywarp asked in the same agitated tone.

"Yeah, about that. Can you explain to me what he's doing that's keeping him busy?" Swindle asked.

"Right now, he currently hanging on to me as we're flying. I don't think he's enjoying it." It's at that moment that Killshot decided to talk.

"Skywarp, if you don't slow down, I'd will fragging destroy you!" He shouted into his commed link.

"Really? Well than, in that cause, let's make things a bit more fun."

"Wait, what? Oh, what the frag? Stop! Stop now!" Killshot's scream started filling Swindle's ears. He quickly muted his comm. link and wondered what the pit was going on.

"Hey, Skywarp. What exactly is going on?" he asked Skywarp.

"Oh, just teaching the killjoy a lesson," he answer in a slightly amused tone. Whether or not Thundercracker was okay or not, he was obviously enjoying this.

"May I asked how you're educating him?"

"Oh, you know. Just flying upside down, barely hanging on to me." He ask in a nonchalant tone. He was really enjoying this.

"Okay. Can you turn right-side up. I kinda don't want him to be a mark on the ground yet."

"Really? I'm really enjoying the screams he's making." Skywarp asked in a begging tone. Swindle thought that through for roughly 5 clicks before answering.

"Nah. It'd be best to have his help in what's coming up." He heard a sigh on the other end of the link.

"Alright, fine. I already save his screams into my databanks anyway," Skywarp replied. Swindle switch the link between him and Killshot back on. He immediately heard swearing on the other line, all of them directed at Skywarp. There was also some death threats in between all the swearing.

Swindle looked at there location. "Just letting you guys know, you should be almost there by now," he informed them.

"Yeah, I can see the end of the street. I'm slowing down now."

"Finally!" Killshot yelled out in a relived tone. "Can we finally kill something?"

Swindle ignore the conversation after that, concentrating on the map. He was at the spot too, looking down at the scene of what was going on down there. He could see the seeker and the grounder landing on the ground. The grounder got off as the seeker transform back to his bipedal form. They were walking towards Thundercracker location, Skywarp running while Killshot followed behind at a slower pace.

Swindle tune backed in to them. "Hey, TC, you're alright?" Skywarp asked. Swindle looked at Thundercracker's body. He was faced down, energon leaking from his body in a blue puddle. He was definitely not in good shape.

Killshot was looking around the area, his null rifle out. Swindle, too, was looking around, looking for anything. He didn't see anybody around. "Hey, Skywarp. Be careful," Killshot said to Skywarp.

"Why?" he asked.

"Don't you think that this is a bit suspicious? I mean, here's Thundercracker in the middle of the opening with little cover."

"So, the only thing I care about right now is Thundercracker." Skywarp answered.

"Skywarp," Swindle said, "as much as I don't want to said it, he's right. It all says ambush to me. Stay away from Thundercracker." Skywarp was getting closer to Thundercracker now.

"Get fragged!" Skywarp yelled out. "I can hear him talking." That got Swindle's attention. Killshot was also moving a little faster. Swindle tried to listen in on them, but could hear nothing.

"What exactly is he saying?" Swindle asked. Skywarp was standing over Thundercracker now with Killshot only a little bit away.

"I think he's saying 'don't,' but don't what?" Skywarp had his hand on Thundercracker now. He was pulling him on his back. "What are you saying, T-"

An explosion suddenly occurred at his location, cutting off whatever he was going to say. Thundercracker was engulfed in the explosion, Skywarp was blown away and cut apart by shrapnel, and Killshot just drop to the ground, holding on to his leg. All this happen within seconds.

Swindle just watched the screen in awe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry Thundercracker fans. Really.


	11. Awe PT 2

Killshot was in pain. To be specific, it was his leg. When the explosion was set off, a random pipe just came out of no where and impale him in the leg, getting stuck in his leg and making his day a lot worse after Skywarp's stunt.

Speaking of Skywarp, Killshot could see him writhing on the ground in agony. The fragments from the explosion cut his chest open and it looked like a arm was missing. Luckily for him, the explosion also cauterize the wound, making sure he wouldn't lose much more energon. Probably hurt like the pit though, considering a lot of him was black instead of purple.

Killshot looked backed at his leg. He could see a small amount of energon trickled down from the end of the pipe not in his leg. It must've hit a energon line. That was definitely not good. Still looking at his leg, he used his servos to grab whatever he could find to help him bleed less. He grab something and looked at to see if it could help.

It was Thundercracker's head.

Killshot quickly drop the head, regarding it with disgust. At least there wasn't any questions about whether Thundercracker was alive or not. The explosion definitely ripped him apart.

Killshot started thinking about the situation. How in the name of Primus could they walked into a obvious trap? Simple, Skywarp had to get too fragging attach to his trinemate and get himself blown up. Honestly, he'd should have follow his orders and stay the frag away from him and Killshot himself should have stayed farther away. Caring about anyone besides yourself was a good way to get yourself killed.

Suddenly, he heard Swindle shouting into his ear. "Is everyone alright? I repeat, Kilshot, Skywarp, Thundercracker, are you still alive? Anybody?" Killshot really wanted to answer with a snappy comment, but considering he was his only way out of this situation, it was best to just get straight to the point.

"Hey, Swindle. Killshot here. I'm alright except for my leg. Skywarp was seriously injure during the explosion, and Thundercracker's dead. I need a evac here as soon as possible," he answered.

"Alright. Just give me a couple of clicks and I should be able to land the ship. The land is big and flat enough for me to land safely."

"Hurry up. They slaggers who did this are probably going to check to make sure we're all dead."

"Got it. Just hold tight." Swindle ordered him. Killshot happily obliged and went back to figuring out what the heck to do with pipe in the leg. Should he tried taking the thing out and patch the wound, potentially making things worse for him, or do nothing and leave it there?

Killshot made a quick decision. He grabbed the pipe and pulled it out roughly, holding back a scream of pain while doing so. He quickly put his hand on the wound to prevent it from bleeding anymore and use the other to look for something to patch it. He saw a rather decent size piece of metal next to Thundercracker's head and use that to help patch the wound. He tried to ignore the fact that the piece of metal was blue.

He looked for something to help him patched the wound. He noticed a rod that was halfway in a fire. He quickly grabbed that rod on the cold end, pulling it out of the fire and used the heated in on the piece of metal, attaching the metal to his body, much to his suffering.

With that done, he admire his handy work. Yeah, the paint of the metal didn't match his, but he couldn't afford to be picky at times like this. He didn't see anymore energon leaking from it, and he could hear Swindle's ship coming down. Everything was fine.

BANG!

Suddenly a shot went above his helm, barely missing him. Killshot made the wise decision and head for any cover he could find, which unfortunately for him, happen to be a small barrier with no other cover around him. He quickly dive for it, and kept his head down, contacting Swindle. "Hey, Swindle. Can you get your blaster ready?"

"Yeah, I can. Is the enemy there?" Swindle asked.

"Yeah, they are. Can you use those blasters to send those slaggers to the pit?" One shot came dangerously close to hitting him.

"Yeah, I can. Can you tell me their location?"

"Hold on a second. Let me see if I can see them without getting shot." Killshot poked his head up rather quickly, seeing if he could see them.

BANG!

Suddenly a shot came for him from a white building a little to the left. Killshot duck his head quickly before the shot hit him, and told Swindle, "The white building to my left. The slagger almost got me."

"Alright, hold on. Let me see if I can hit it. Do yo know which floor he was on?" Killshot think that over trying to member which floor it was.

"I think he was about 20 floors up. I'm not sure."

"Alright. Getting ready to fire. Stay clear." Suddenly the ship came out of the sky, it's front towards the building. There was a light shining on the front of the ship. He was charging the shot. Killshot wonder exactly how big the explosion would be. He had never seen him fire the gun on the ship. In fact, he probably hasn't seen all the guns on the ship.

Swindle fired at the building. Killshot looked, seeing someone flying away from the building, right before the blast hit the building, blinding the area in a bright light briefly follow by smoke. Killshot could hear something collapsing, probably the building. The smoke was obscuring everything.

Killshot got up slowly, trying to walk through the smoke. It was clearing pretty quickly, letting the night sky bleed through. He was walking towards where he last seen Skywarp, limping along at a slow pace. That pipe really made a good hit.

He continue walking along, the smoke dissipating quicker and quicker. He could see Skywarp now, still groaning, along with some pieces of Thundercracker scattered around. He walked a little quicker, wanting to check what kind of damage he had.

The ship had landed by now, right side towards them. The door opened up follow by the ramp and Swindle walked out of it, checking to assess the damage. He came to Skywarp and Killshot's position and got a quick look at Skywarp. "Slag. You weren't kidding when you said he was injure. He looks like he went up against half the army. I'm surprise he's still kicking."

"Yeah, I'm surprise too." Killshot replied.

"Where's Thundercracker's body?"

"Scatted by the explosion. His head is over there somewhere," he said, pointing to where he was when he was hit by the pipe.

"Alright. I'll get Skywarp to the med bay while you collect as many pieces of Thundercracker as we can."

"Why am I collecting Thundercracker?"

"Do you think Starscream would appreciate the fact that we got him killed and left the body behind?"

"Good point," Killshot agreed, a little reluctant to be a body collector. He went to pick up the many pieces of him while Swindle carried Skywarp bridal style to the ship. Killshot first headed to the spot he saw Thundercracker head. He walked slowly, his limp still slowing him down. It took a little while to reach the spot and a little bit more to find the head.

He looked at the head. Thundercracker head was mangaled a bit by the explosion and he had a eye missing. Some of the wiring was sticking out of the bottom of the head, where it should be connected to the head. It was not a pretty sight.

With Thundercracker's head, he searched for the rest of the pieces.


	12. Awe PT 3

A black and red jet was flying away from the building, really wanting to get out of there. It was going just fine. Strap the helpless seeker with explosive, let his allies come save him, blow them up, and then take out the stragglers. It worked like a charm too. The only one left standing was a grounder and was supposed to be easy pickings, but the slagger was quick, dodged the shots, and found cover. Alright, so he was being a little difficult. Didn't change the fact he could have just gone over there and bomb him.

But then the fragging ship showed up and punched a unicron-size hole in his plans.

Now, he was flying back to the ship to regroup with his allies. They should be waiting for him back at their ship. He flew through the night air, dodging the obstacles that hinder his progress.

He was at the ship now, and he quickly change into his bipedal form and enter through the open door. He looked to see two bots in the cockpit, one standing and the other sitting in the pilot's seat, idly talking to each other. He closed the ship door and approach the other two.

The two bots looked virtually the same. Both were grounders. Both had the same body type down to the very last detail from their average height and stocky body with long legs and short arms. They even had the same eyes, a purple dot surrounded by red. The only differences were in the colors. One was red while the other was blue. The two were split-spark twins.

The red one standing up address him. "Hey, Bombline. How did you do out there? Ran into a little trouble?"

Bombline provided a answer. "Yes, I did and I advise that we get out of here now, Warmup. They have a ship with enough power to destroy one of these buildings. How do you think our ship will fair?"

"Obviously, not very well," the blue one interjected, in a calm demeanor. He was already getting the ship ready to go. He hit a switch and the ship came to life. He took control and flew the ship up towards the sky, avoiding any thing that could interfere. Flying through the skies in a ship, even a small one like these, was difficult, but the blue grounder controlled the ship like an expert, avoiding all obstacles. Soon, they were out of the city and into the sky, leaving the planet.

"Good job Cooldown," Warmup said to his twin.

"Nothing special," he replied back.

"Alright, Cooldown," Bombline interrupted the two, "set the coordinates to Talos IV. We're to meet out employers there to get the money for what they wanted." Cooldown inputted the coordinates to the map and flew towards the area, leaving the dead planet behind.

"You two should go recharge," Cooldown recommended. "It's going to take a while reach Talos IV."

"Yeah," Warmup admitted. "It's been a long day. I could use it."

"I suppose you have a point," Bombline said. Together, the two walk through a door to the only other room on the ship, the barracks, leaving Cooldown by himself to drive them through space.

He liked the silence.

XXX

Skywarp was in pain. So much pain. He wasn't concentrating on anything else except the pain. His chest felt like he was stabbed over a hundred times and he didn't feel his arm on his left side. He just felt the pain in the shoulder.

He laid in the med bay, on the table next to Shockwave. Swindle was in there too, doing whatever he can to make sure that Skywarp would get to Dabola alive. He had already added a wire into Skywarp to get the flow of energon flowing. He was trying to figure out what else to do. He didn't exactly have much in the way of medical devices that he actually knew how to use. He had a idea and went looking for it.

Killshot came in the med bay, carrying the remains of Thundercracker with him. He went over to the only other table in the room and laid the pieces on there. It was difficult, but he think he found all of Thundercracker's important parts, ie. arms, legs, body, head… You know, important stuff like that.

Swindle was still looking for something. He looked in a compartment and found what he was looking for: a sedative. He went over to Skywarp's form and injected into him, hoping it would keep him calm and put him in recharge. It took a little while before the sedative kicked him and put Skywarp in la-la-land.

With that done, Swindle plug him up to a machine. On the screen of the machine, the activities of his spark show up, showing that it was still pulsating. With that done, he turned to Killshot and talked to him. "Stay here and make sure nothing happens to Skywarp, alright." Swindle ordered.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Killshot muttered, still standing next to the remains of Thundercracker, listening to his music. Swindle took that enthusiastic answer and ran straight to the bridge. It didn't take long to reach it, as nothing hinder his progressed except for a piece of a leg from Thundercracker that Killshot dropped and accidently forgot about. Swindle made a mental note to ask him if he actually cared about anything besides getting a cheap thrill and music.

He reached the bridge and headed straight to the video communicator. He set it up to talk to the Dabola base and waited for Onslaught to answer the request. It didn't take long for the base to answer, although the person wasn't Onslaught. Instead, a grounder with a gold face and a red and black paint job was there. "Hello," he replied in a bored voice, "who is this."

"This is Swindle, universal arms dealer and information broker," he replied in the same greeting he gave to everyone, "I've got a problem. I got injure Decepticon personal and they really need some medical help. I've already talk with Onslaught about this and he said we could land here to help them. I'm just here to warn you that we are coming and that you should expect us."

The grounder on the other end looked at him with that bland face before replying, "Let me talk to Onslaught about this and make sure you're telling the truth." With that, he put his attention off of the screen to something else, not looking at Swindle. Swindle knew this con but, he couldn't put a name to him. It was bothering him. Suddenly, another voice filled the screen.

"Yes, Dead End," Onslaught said. Swindle knew now who the other con was. Dead End was a member of the Stunticons and was the sanest member of the team. He used 'was' because, over time, Breakdown had gotten over his intense paranoia of everything thanks to the help of a medic called Knock Out and the death of their leader, Motormaster, a con who is definitely not miss by most of the Decepticon. Because of that, Dead End is now held in the same regard as the other two living Stunticons, which is not very good company to be associated with.

"I have someone on the other line called Swindle that wants to-"

"Let him land," Onslaught interjected. "Is he there?"

"I think he can hear you right now."

"Swindle, you okay?"

"Yeah," Swindle answered, "can't say the same about everyone else though."

"What?" Onslaught asked in a worried tone.

"The mission went straight to the pit, Onslaught. Thundercracker's dead, Skywarp's critically injure and will require surgery, and my bodyguard is now walking with a limp. Thundercracker got ambush and others tried to help him and walk right into a trap," Swindle said, giving him the basic rundowns of the events.

"Oh, slag" Onslaught muttered, actually cursing. That was not a good sign. "How long before you reach Dabola?" he asked.

"About 2, maybe 3, megacycles," he replied.

"Alright, I'll alert out medics about this and they will get ready for surgery," Onslaught said.

"Good, see you soon," Swindle said.

"See you soon, too," Onslaught said leaving Swindle to stare at the black and red con. The two look at each other, before Dead End spoke.

"So, Thundercracker is dead and Skywarp needs surgery. How unexpected," he said in a bland voice.

"Yeah, you could say that. You care about them?" Swindle asked.

"Not really. We're just food for rust. We're all going to die someday, it's just a manner of when," Dead End said, ever the cheerful con that he is.

"Right, well, bye," Swindle said, really not wanting to have a conversation like this with him. He hit a button to end the chat and headed for the pilot's seat. He started up the ship and it started to ascend. It went up quicker and quicker it was they were above the city. Swindle speed up the ship and started to head for Dabola.


	13. Preparations PT 1

Onslaught made his way through the hallways of the base, heading to the med-bay to inform the medics about their guest. The base had four different medics. Well, three medics and a medical assistant. It would only take about a cycle to reach them now. On the way there, he passed up many Vehicons, all looking the same.

Onslaught was a pretty impressive looking figure; he was considerably taller than the other mechs and was quite bulky with a lime-green and blue paint job and yellow optics. He was more of a hands-off strategist, staying behind and planning his next move. He's a pretty responsible figure and knows what he's doing most of the time. Of course, there are times when he slips up, and some of those slip-ups had some pretty bad consequences. Look at what happen to the Combaticons because of a certain slip-up for example.

He was at the door now, and he pressed the open button. The wide doors open with a nearly silent hiss. Onslaught walked in and saw the three of them doing something. Flatline was doing some researching on the computer, Scalpel was patching up a small wound on a Vehicon's head (idiot trip somehow), and Hook was working on… something. That left one unaccounted for.

"Hook, where's Scavenger?" he question the green and purple mech. Hook looked at him from where he was at and then turn back to his work, before answering him.

"He's not here. My guest, he's either out looking for supplies or at the morgue. Why?"

"We are having some injure personal coming and they need all the help they can get." Onslaught answer quickly, answering loud enough so that the other two in the room would heard him.

"Who?" question Scalpel, jumping off of the vehicon, his job done. Scalpel was a really small bot, reaching at the most, to slightly above other people's feet. He also walks on six legs, which has a habit of freaking out some of the cons. He also has a weird accent that no one quite knows where in the pit that he got it from.

"Swindle is coming in with them. He is uninjured, but the others are, to varying degrees. His bodyguard, Killshot is walking with a limp, probably impale by something. There's also Shockwave, who has been offline for awhile, according to Swindle. He didn't say anything about his condition, except that he was injure in a blast of some sort. Finally, Skywarp is critically injure and is going to need surgery. I don't know how bad it is, but according to, it was really bad."

"Anyone else?"

"One casualty. Thundercracker." Onslaught said.

"What?" asked Flatline, looking away from the screen towards Onslaught. "You're kidding."

"No, I'm not." Onslaught said. Flatline looked angry at that. He had a black paintjob, with red highlights. He was a grounder and probably the best surgeon in the room.

"How did he die?" he asked.

"He was caught in a explosion and was blown to pieces." Onslaught answered, a hint in sorrow in his voice. He knew about the particular relationship between the two. Thundercracker was pretty much the main reason Flatluine got up in the ranks and approved of his experiments. Onslaught didn't know how they became friends, but he knew they good friends with each other, despite Flatline questionable sanity at times.

"How much time do we got?" asked Hook, interested in the conversation. Thundercracker was a high-level Decepticon and if he got offed, than that meant serious business.

"About two-to-three Megacycles until they get here." Onslaught answered. He started heading for the door. "I'll head down to the morgue to see if I can find Scavenger," he said as he left. He was back in the hallway, and started head in too the morgue. It wasn't too far away from the med-bay. Just have to turn right at the corridor up ahead and it would be at the end of the hall. Onslaught walked quickly towards the room.

Onslaught didn't quite know why Scavenger spends so much time in the morgue. It just always seemed odd to spend so much time to spend around bodies. Maybe he weas conducting experiments on them? Probably not. He didn't seemed like the type to experiment on them, like Flatline.

He turn around the corridor too see someone else outside the morgue, looking inside. The person was a jet and had a red and white paint job. He also had a scrapload of scars on his body, some from battle, but most of it looked like it came from torture. Onslaught knew immediately it was Misfire.

Misfire is, to put it bluntly, the worst shot in the history of warfare. Seriously, no one else is worse with a gun than with him. The most notable achievements he has was being the single most Decepticon to enroll into Decepticon Miltary Collage (4627 times!) and for being the person responsible for the Great Friendly Fire of Iacon, in which he accidently killed twenty other Decepticons, an event in which Megatron personally punish him for. It was not pretty.

Onslaught walked up to the con slowly, wondering why was in waiting outside the morgue. He reached him and asked him in a low voice, "Why are you waiting outside the morgue?" Misfire jumped a bit and turned around to face the person behind him. Realizing who it was, he calm down.

"Don't sneak up on me like that," he said, in a tense tone, looking up at Onslaught, who was considerably taller than him. In fact, he was the tallest person around the base.. "Now, what was it you want?"

"Why are you here?" he asked again, a little annoyed.

Misfire pointed inside and answered, "Scavenger in there, taking to the corpses." Onslaught looked at him liked he just said he hit a bulls-eye. Talking to corpses was… unusual, to put it lightly. "He just talks to them liked he's having a normal conversation. To be honest, it's freaking me out." Onslaught silently agreed with him, but kept it to himself.

"You still haven't answer why you're here in the first place." Onslaught said. Why was Misfire doing around the morgue.

"I was just walking around, minding my own business," Misfire said. Onslaught gave him a looked that said 'I know you're lying now tell me what I want to know,' and cracked his servos, showing what would happen if he don't talk. Misfire obliged, saying in a fast voice, "Okay, okay, I'll tell you. I came down here to see if I could get anything from the dead. The door opened, but before I went inside, I heard Scavenger talking. I peeked inside and sawed him talking to one of the dead bodies. It was freaky; felt liked in was on a set for a horror film. You know, one of those films where the bad guy some insane guy who likes to talked to the corpses of the people he killed. You know what I'm talking about?" Another thing about Misfire, he liked to talk a lot sometimes.

"Yes, I understand what you're talking about. Now leave." Onslaught said, a head on his hand, trying to keep calm.

"Alright, fine man. If you need me, I'll be at the target range, see if my skills can get any better than they already are."

'Good,' Onslaught thought. 'You need it.' Misfire went by his lonesome self and Onslaught was left standing by himself. Onslaught looked inside the morgue and went inside. The room was a big room, which was a good thing considering the amount of Vehicons that die on a regular basis. Seriously, they died so easily.

The first thing he noticed was Scavenger standing over one of the bodies on the table. He was colored green and people, like Hook, his chest, arms, and shovel-tail were colored green while his legs were purple, leaving the head black and the optics red. He was talking to the corpse. "I don't know what to do. Nothing seems good enough, but you're my friend right." Onslaught had the immediate feeling of getting the frag out of the room and pretend like he didn't just saw that, but stay nonetheless and decided to speak up.

"Hey, Scavenger," he spoke up. Scavenger turned around sharply, looking frighten.

"Onslaught, what do you need? Anything I can help with?" he said, in a scared tone. Onslaught had to hand it to him for not stuttering.

"Just came to tell you that we're going to have injure personal here within two or three megacycles. Hook's going to need you." Onslaught said, ignoring the whole 'why do you talk to corpses' conversation. He'll save that for a boring day.

"Alright, I'll head over there right now," he said, walking quickly passed Onslaught and heading to the med-bay. He walked quickly, almost tripping as he did so. Onslaught looked around the morgue one last time, before exiting.


	14. Preparations PT 2

Dead End was in the command room, looking at the tactics Onslaught was using. Onslaught and him had a good system going on in regards to anything that involve a plan. Onslaught would come up with the plans and Dead End would figure out all the bad things that could happen in the plans. If you ask him "What's the worst thing that could happen?" he will depressingly give you all the ways in which it could end badly. It was his specialty. Sure, it didn't give a good social life, but it did help out in plans, whether it's battle strategies or how to best ration out supplies.

He was currently looking at the supply manifest. They medics all have their tools along with back-ups, so their good, unless a freak explosion happens. Hey, you never know. The energon supplies were still high and should be good, unless Misfire somehow manage to blow them up again.

Dead End just got done with the last of the supplies when he got a called from Onslaught on the comm. link. The red and black con answered in a bored tone, "Yes, Onslaught."

"Just decided to tell you to go to the firing range; Misfire is there right now and everybody is too busy to watch and make sure he doesn't blow anything up again by accident." Onslaught said.

"Alright, I'm heading there now. I just finish checking the supplies. Come read the notes I'd left for you once you get the chance."

"Will do. Later, Dead End." Onslaught hung up, leaving Dead End all by his lonesome self. He headed for the door quickly, knowing that if Misfire is left alone for too long, disaster was sure too struck. Last time they did that, as previously mentioned, he somehow blew up half of the energon, leaving more than a few Decepticons tick off. Misfire made the wise decision to hide until it blew over, which was a pretty long time.

Dead End went into the brightly lit hallways and made his way to the firing range. It was a short walk, the firing range was near the middle of the base, the command center, and could be reach quickly at most places. Dead End passed by several of the Vehicons, most of which were idly talking each other, enjoying the fact that they have a social life, unlike a certain moody red and black bot.

Dead End was at the firing range now. He stop before he entered the door. He could hear Misfire firing on the other side, probably missing all the targets. Dead End, despite ultra-depressing and talked like he'd was best friends with death, didn't exactly wanted to go in there. Misfire astonishing inaccuracy would probably hit him, and, knowing Misfire skill with a gun, probably would give him an agonizingly slow death instead of a quick one. Dead End may be a fatalist, but he wasn't masochist.

Dead End, finally gaining the courage (and urge to care), went into the room. He found Misfire firing at the targets in the room, red-and-white cutouts of bots. At least, he was trying to hit them. So far, the only thing he hit so far was the wall and a Vehicon that had his helm blown off. Misfire must've accidentally hit him. Wasn't the first time he'd accidentally killed one, not that many people cared. They were just cannon fodder anyway.

Dead End slowly walked up to Misfire, taking care to make sure Misfire wasn't accidentally pointing the gun in his direction. Misfire looked frustrated, which wasn't surprising. He just wanted to hit something that wasn't moving. The Vehicon was moving like a idiot into his line of sight and died by a misplaced bullet. He noticed Dead End was coming his way and took cared not to aim at him. Unlike Vehicons, some people would care if he died.

Dead End stood by Misfire, watching him shoot the gun. Honestly, he looked like he was holding the gun correctly and was aiming at the target, but the shot always manage to somehow be way off target. It was quite the phenomenon, all this failing. Misfire, Dead End had to admit, was determine. He was not going to give up until he hit one of these targets. You hear me, he was not going to-

He gave up.

Misfire threw his gun on the ground and kicked it once, accidently firing the gun and almost hitting Dead End in the head if he didn't duck in time. Looked like Dead End still had self-perseveration instinct. He looked at Misfire, looking at the gun like it personally insult him, and said some really bad things about his creator. Dead End watched this with a uninterested look, his purple optic looking at other areas. A Vehicon was poking his head inside to watch the show.

Misfire was calming down now, now only looking at the gun like it was idiot. He grabbed the gun and headed for the armory the the back of the room, muttering to himself that it was just defective gun and that he should report it to the his superiors once he was done. A superior just so happened to be here right now and wanted to see if the gun was really defected. "Misfire, can I see the gun?" Dead End asked in the same bored tone.

Misfire looked at him and said "Sure. I think the gun's defected or something. It keeps missing for some reason." 'Sure, just like the gun you use to kill your twenty allies back at Iacon' Dead End thought to himself. He took the gun and headed to the range, ready to try the gun out. He hold it out, putting the end on his shoulder and aimed down the sight. He tooked aim at the head of a target and fired.

It took the target's head clean off.

Dead End, deciding that one perfectly executed shot wasn't enough, decided to take off the two arms of the target off next. Both shoots landed right in the shoulder, taking the arms off. For the Coup de Gras, he aimed right at the sparked chamber of a target and fired, punching straight through the target's spark.

With that done, he handed the gun back to Misfire and said in his ever bored tone, "I think the gun is working, but feel free to try out a different gun if you want to. Maybe one of those might actually be defected and blow up in your hands. It's best to figure this out before we do suicidal assaults on the Autobots." He went back to a wall and lean on it, watching Misfire, who was just looking at the gun. Misfire snap out of his trance and went back to the firing range and started firing again, missing the targets completely.

This kept up, varying in degrees of enjoyment to everyone who decided to watch, except for Dead End, who just decided to watch the whole sad state of affairs with his 'I really don't cared' look. Each shot, Misfire grimaced grew wider. Soon, he started cursing at every shot along. A little while longer, it boiled down to just gibberish that wouldn't be intelligible to any language except for some obscure, archaic who just figure what language was.

After about a whole megacycle of just firing, Misfire actually manage to hit something!

It was a glancing blow.

That didn't matter, though. Misfire was cheering loud and hard, dancing and shouting all kinds of weird things like "Who's bad? I'm bad." and "I've got the TOUCH!" Dead End somehow manage to keep the same look throughout the event, maybe having his mouth go higher by a fraction of a inch, but still not going anywhere close to a smile.

Having showboated enough, Misfire decided to head back to the armory, a job well done in his opinion. A probably not ever close to injure bot was a good day in his opinion. Soon, he will be taking heads off with the gun.

Dead End follow Misfire, making sure he wasn't going to be using any other guns, specifically the missile launcher. Only Primus knows what damage he could cause if he got his hands on one of those. Misfire put the gun back in its rightful place. Dead End decided to ask a question.

"When exactly is you appointment he ask?" That may seem like a odd question until you realized that Misfire was also having therapy. Turns out, getting brutally torture and accidentally killing your allies can really mess up your psyche.

"I don't have one today. Hook's going to be too busy with the injure guys coming in for a session," he answered. "Besides, I still don't get why I'm having them in the first place. I mean, I'm just fine. There's nothing wrong with me." That's what he always said, but he's not fooling everybody. After that particular incident with Megatron, Misfire was pretty adamant about making sure no one touches him, not even medics. "Also, why the heck is Hook a therapist. I mean, I just don't get it."

"Because, we don't have a official therapist and out of all the medics we have, Hook is definitely the most stable of them." Dead End answer.

"Okay, good point, but still, Hook! The guy is way too egotistical for his own good." Well, he had a point there. Hook was a bit of a egotist.

"Flatline is a individual who like to experiment on people, Scalpel loves to take things apart, and Scavenger needs therapy himself. Compare Hook to those three and I said you're getting off easy, unless of course you want to die. If you do, I head Scalpel looking for a fresh corpse," Dead End said, making several good points in that monotone voice of his. One must wonder if it ever shows emotion besides boredom and melancholy.

"That's fine. I'm just fine with Hook, even if he ignores most of the things I said." Misfire said. "So, how long before the guys get here?" he asked.

"I'm guessing less than megacycle by now."

"Alright. I'm going to go hang out somewhere. Try not to need my help," Misfire said, ending the conversation and exiting the firing range. Dead End follow suit, deciding to hang around the command area and see if he could get any more work done.


	15. Preparations PT 3

Onslaught was walking through the halls heading to his next location, Mixmaster's lab. Mixmaster was the base resident chemist and made all kinds of things, from drugs to explosives. Mostly explosives. He was also a Construction, like Hook and Scavenger. Like them, he had a purple-and-green paint job, but was considerably bulkier than them.

Onslaught had reach the door and it open with silently. The room was brightly lit and colored a dark shade of purple. There were many machines in the room. Mixmaster was currently standing over one of them, doing something Onslaught didn't quite know and muttering to himself. He wasn't a chemist, he was a tactician.

He walked towards Mixmaster at a tensed pace and spoke, "Mixmaster, I need some of your supplies. We have a patient coming in and the medics are going to need a sedative to keep asleep during the operation." Mixmaster didn't react, instead looking at the chemicals he was using, still muttering. A lot of the Decepticons were pretty sure that he had a least a few loose wirings in his head. "Mixmaster?" he asked loudly. Mixmaster looked up from his worked, looking at Onslaught.

"What is it that you need?" he asked calmly. Onslaught looked at him tensely. He really didn't want to piss him off. Of all the people on the base, Mixmaster was probably the best one at making your death looked like a accident. "Idiots blow themselves all the time by taking stuff from my lab," he says. Others, naturally, don't believe him, but don't have any proof.

"We need some sedatives," Onslaught repeated. "It's for a patient that's coming in." Mixmaster looked at him a little bit before answering.

"Sure." Well, that was easy.

"Good, where are they?"

"In the container over here. Let me show you." Mixmaster walked from his place to a box next to the wall with Onslaught following behind him. The box was a pretty box, about the size of Onslaught's chest. Mixmaster picked up the box and handed it to Onslaught. "I have several different sedatives in here. I got them in order, from left to right , strongest to weakest. Be warn, I make the strong stuff really strong. It might just be enough to slow your spark down to the point that it will kill you," he warned.

"Thanks, Mixmaster. I'll be sure to tell the medics about what you say." Onslaught said, his voice straining. The box was heavy.

"Good, now, get the frag out of my lab! I have some things to make and you are interrupting me." Onslaught wisely took his advice and scram. Last thing he wanted was a pissed off chemist. He walked into the hallway, towards the med-lab. He walked quickly, the sooner he got there, the sooner he could get rid of the box. He accidently bumped into several Vehicons on the way there, not bothering to apologize for it.

He arrived at the door and quickly entered the room. The medics were done prepping for surgery and was waiting on Onslaught for the sedatives. Flatline approach Onslaught and took the box from him. He went to a table and placed it on there. He opened the box and looked through the sedatives. "How strong are the sedatives?" he asked.

"They go in order, from strongest to weakest, left to right. He said to be really careful with the strong stuff," Onslaught answered, parroting what Mixmaster said.

"Alright, how much longer before Swindle gets here?"

"About 15 cycles."

"Good. Anything else you want to tell us?"

"No. I'm, going to the landing area and wait for Swindle. When he arrives, the Vehicons will escort the patients here." Onslaught said to all and left the room and headed to the landing area. He passed the Vehicons and heard many of them talking. Onslaught heard them saying something along the lines that Misfire actually manage to hit something, but that was impossible. It probably was just a rumor.

He arrived at a door and head outside. Dabola was a alright planet to live on. It was mostly tropical forest that the Decepticons had to cut down. The landing area was a large, rectangular strip of land. It was closed off with a giant metal fenced that was electrified and had guard towers at each corner. Most of the time, it was a barren area. They only had one ship in the area. It was a large ship whose primary function was to serve as a cargo holder. The rest of the area had nothing, leaving a lot of room for visiting ships, like Swindle's.

Onslaught walked out there, wondering what the slag to say to Swindle. It's been a couple of vorns since they last spoke. He had been trying to keeping track of Swindle, along with the rest of the Combaticons. He was, at least according to what he had gather, arms dealing still, selling to the highest bidder. Didn't surprise him much. He's always been a salesbot. Slag, he even named his ship 'The Merchant.'

Blast Off was still sniping. He was serving mostly to the Decepticons, although he's started taking assassination contracts from neutral bots on other neutral bots. Once again, didn't surprise Onslaught much. Blast Off was always someone who prefer to take someone out from a distance and treated everybody roughly the same way.

Vortex was still insane, still interrogating poor, unfortunate souls, and was still executing the people he interrogated after they got the information, preferring to drop them from such a height that it would kill them on impact. No change there. Although, Onslaught has word that the DJD were interested in having Vortex in there rank. Vortex was insane, but was a loyal, insane person and that just happen to be right up there alley.

Brawl was, well, probably still one with the Allspark. Such is the price of war.

Onslaught looked up from the sky, breaking free from his thoughts. The ship was coming in. It descended quickly to the ground and stopped. Onslaught headed out to the ship, while also calling out for some Vehicons to get the stretchers. He was at the ship's door and was waiting for the door to open. It took some time before the door open and dropped the ramp, revealing Swindle.

The Vehicons had arrive at that time. Swindle ordered them to follow him and they follow him through the door, leaving Onslaught by himself. It didn't last long, as a couple of cycles later, the Vehicons stepped out of the, carrying Skywarp and Shockwave. Swindle waked down behind them and approached Onslaught. He stood by Onlaught as more Vehicons step out, many of them carrying the pieces of Thundercracker, along with Killshot limping slowly, following them to the base.

The two Combaticons stood there until Onslaught made a motion for Swindle to follow. "Come on," he said. "We're going to the Command room."

"Why?" Swindle asked, following him.

"So that you can explain to Megatron exactly what the frag happen."


	16. Plans and Dreams PT 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dialogue heavy.

Swindle follow Onslaught to the command room, where Dead End was waiting for them. He was at the computer, typing some things in the computer. "I'm patching us to the Nemesis now, Onslaught," he said to Onslaught. Swindle was a bit worry right now. What will he said to Megatron? How do you explain that you sorta, kinda, maybe, responsible for the death of Thundercracker and the serious injury of Skywarp? It was his decision to go to Telos. Sure, Killshot and Skywarp goad him into going, but it was still his decision.

At least he couldn't blame him for Shockwave.

The screen on the wall came on the show Megatron. He looked… the same as he always does. Scary and intimidating. "Onslaught," he spoke "how was the mission by Thundercracker and Skywarp."

Onslaught looked at Megatron with the bravest face he could offer and said "I regret to inform that the mission ended up being a failure, lord." Megatron didn't look so happy at that. His scowled deepen.

"What happen?" he asked.

"Yes, please explain to me what happen to my trinemates," Starscream said, coming into view on the screen. He didn't look happy at the moment. He was about to get more angry.

"I regret to former you, Commander Starscream, that Thundercracker is dead and Skywarp is currently in surgery," Onslaught said, in the most sincere tone possible. Didn't change the outcome of what happen next.

"What! What do you mean! How did this happen!?" Starscream screamed at Onslaught wanting a answer.

"I'm afraid I can't answer that question, but someone can," Onslaught said.

"Who?" Megatron asked, still speaking in a calm voice, despite the news.

"Swindle, lord," he said, indicating to Swindle to step forward. He obliged, stepping up a bit so Megatron could clearly see him. This wasn't the first time he had to talk with Megatron. Of course, most of those had to do with deals, what weapons Megatron want, how much, etc…, but he never had to give a debrief of a mission before. Especially one that went as badly as this before.

"Hey, lord Megatron," Swindle began casually.

"Swindle. Explain to use exactly what happen, now," Megatron order.

"Uh, yeah. You see, I was on Cybertron looking for stuff people left behind. Weapons, supplies, schematics, stuff like that. During that, I got a call from Shockwave. He wanted something and I just so happen to have it and decided to meet him there."

"How long ago was this?" Megatron asked.

"Last solar cycle, lord."

"Continue."

"Yeah, well, next solar cycle, today, we reached Shockwave only to find it abandon. No one was there."

"That would be mine doing," Starscream said, in a calmer voice than before, but still notably pissed. "Since Shockwave was dead, I decided to get all the personal to serve on our ship. He wasn't going to use them anymore."

"Actually, he isn't."

"What?" Megatron asked, looking at Starscream with the best evil eye he could manage.

"It wasn't like he was perfectly fine. We found him in some rubble and got him out. He had some burn marks on him and his optic was broken, but he was still alive."

"So, Shockwave still lives?" Megatron asked.

"Yes, lord," Onslaught said. "He should be in surgery along with Skywarp. He isn't in worst condition than him, but he's still in bad shape."

"Alright, so I guess you weren't completely lying Starscream, but you still should've check to make sure he was alive. He could've died if Swindle hadn't find him." Megatron said. Swindle was surprise he hadn't done anything to bad yet. He expected him to be blowing up at Starscream at the moment. "So, when did you meet Starscream's trinemates?"

"As we were carrying him out," Swindle said until Megatron interrupted again.

"We?"

"Oh, yeah. My bodyguard, Killshot, was with me during the trip."

"Killshot. If I'm correct, he has one of the highest confirmed kill count amongst the snipers, second only to your fellow Combaticon, Blast Off."

"Yeah, that's him. He's still mad that someone's beating him. Anyway, we were carrying Shockwave out, when we met Thundercracker and Skywarp. Long story short, we got Shockwave to the med bay and was about to leave when Thundercracker noticed something. There was apparently another ship around the city of Telos, so, as captain of the ship, I decided that we should go there."

"And what happen?" Megatron asked.

"I honestly don't know. I was on the ship when everything was going down. Skywarp said that Thundercracker wasn't answering his comm., so I went there along with Skywarp and Killshot taking a different way. When I got there, I saw on the screen that Thundercracker was lying down on the ground, looking injure. Skywarp and Killshot got there and went to check him. Unfortunately, someone wire a bomb on Thundercracker to explode. The blast killed Thundercracker and injure Skywarp and Killshot."

"So, Thunderrcracker didn't even get the chance to die a honable death! Someone just strapped a bomb to him and blow him up!" Starscream said, in a slightly angrier voiced than earlier.

"Yeah. It wasn't over yet through. Soon after the explosion, a sniper started taking shots at Killshot. He got to cover and help me point out his position to me, after which, I use my blaster to blow up the building he was in. The building collapse, but I doubt in died that easily."

"Why?" Megatron asked.

"I think I saw a jet fly out of the building before it exploded. It fly out of there into the city before I could shoot the slagger, again. Anyway, after that we collected Thundercracker's remains and took Skywarp to the med bay and then flew out of there. That's the end of the story."

"Do you have any idea who did this? What he looked like or anything?" Megatron asked.

"No. The only thing I got was that he might've been a jet as a alt-mode. Skywarp could give you a better idea what he looks like. He found footage of him and downloaded it, but we can't use it yet, considering he's in surgery."

Megatron took all this information in. He knew he needed to take of this problem quickly. He was in a war with the Autobots and had no time to take care of this himself. He knew where Optimus Prime was and had to kill him. Someone else had to kill this miscreant. After a little bit of thinking, he decided on a course of action. "Swindle," he said. "I want you to find this person and kill him."

"Wait, what? Why me?" Swindle asked. Yeah, he may hate the guy who did this, but he didn't want to waste time going after him. There was money to be made and time spent not making money was not good for him.

"Because, you've encountered him and remain unharmed. You have a great deal of weapons and you have a vast information network. You'll have a much better time finding and killing him than most of the Decepticons," he said, giving off his reasons which kinda soothe Swindle's ego a little bit that Megatron actually held him with such regard. He was useful. "But, you won't be going alone. Onslaught!"

"Yes, lord?" Onslaught asked.

"Who's your best soldier?" Megatron asked.

"Dead End, lord" he said, indicating his second-in-command.

"Can you survive without him?"

"Yes. I believe we can. Why?" Onslaught asked, not liking where this was heading.

"He will be accompanying Swindle on this mission," Megatron said. The gloomy SIC looked up from the console at this. He was going on a mission with Swindle? Just great.

"Megatron," Starscream interrupted, "I asked that you let me go on this mission with them. This wretched thing killed my trinemate and I want him dead more than anybody else right now."

"Your request is noted Starscream, but I need you to help me finish off Optimus Prime. The death of the leader of the Autobots is more important at the moment than personal vengeance and if I figure out that you leave this ship to carry out your vengeance, than I will personally find you myself and kill you. Is that understood?" Megatron ordered.

Starscream looked at him in anger, before answering in a control voice, "Yes, lord Megatron."

"Good. You have your orders Swindle. I recommend carrying those out as soon as possible. The sooner this ends the better. I can't afford to waste my troops on anything except the war," he said, ending the connection. Dead End walked up to Swindle, who had a blank expression on his face. He obviously did not like the fact he was wasting his time going after the murderer, but orders were orders.

Onslaught decided to open a conversation with Swindle. "You're not going with just Dead End."

"Huh," he said, not quite understanding him.

"I'm giving you a couple of medics to go with you on this trip." Onslaught said.

"Why?"

"Because, I don't want you to die on this mission. You're going after a dangerous individual and I don't want you to end up dying. I can afford to spare two of my medics to help you." Onslaught said. Swindle was shocked. He really didn't expect that.

"Why?" Swindle asked.

"Because, I care about you. I care about all my men, especially you and the other Combaticons," Onslaught said, showing a sincere tone in his voice.

"Thanks, man," Swindle said, a little relieved that someone still cared for him. With the Decepticons, you don't exactly have many friends. They were just allies.

"You're, welcome." Onslaught said. "Dead End, I need you to informed Hook and Scavenger about the recent turn of events after the operation is done. They're going with you two."

"Yes sir," Dead End said, heading to the door and towards the med lab, leaving Swindle and Onslaught by themselves. Swindle looked at the door before heading to one of the chairs in the room. Onslaught followed him and sat in a chair next to him. The two just sat there silently, Swindle thinking about how he could finish this quickly and get back to dealing while Onslaught was wondering how Swindle been for the past while.

"So, Swindle," he began, "how've you been for the past couple of vorns."

"Fine, just fine. You look like you're doing fine, yourself, being the leading officer at a base."

"Yeah, I'd guess so." He they sat there in silence again. "So," and Onslaught broke it again, "need some supplies."

"Well, I'm going to need some more energon." Swindle said.

"Alright, I'll go inform the Vehicons and check on the others." Onslaught got up and left the room, leaving Swindle in silence.

Swindle was really hating today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really need to work on my Megatron and Starscream.


	17. Plans and Dreams PT 2

_Skywarp was walking around the city of Vos. The Decepticons had managed to take control of the city and would keep on going. The city was the second to fall and many more would join it soon, along with Kaon. It was a pretty ugly battle, but mostly for the Autobots. The Decepticons had managed to suffer very little causalities, while at least half the Autobots were killed and rest defeated._

_Skywarp manage to kill about 10 of the Autobots, most were thanks to fact that he could fly and they could not. One Autobot actually manage to give him a run for money by forcing Skywarp into a position in which he had to fight him on the ground. He ambush him and probably would've killed him if it wasn't for his teleportation skills. He used it to avoid most of the damage he tried to inflict on him, except for a couple of well-placed hits when he was too busy showing off instead of actually taking him seriously. In the end, it end up with Skywarp shanking the guy in the back by teleporting behind him._

_He was walking around the area, not really doing anything. According to others, they would soon be attacking the city of Tarn. He had already loaded up for the attack and was just waiting for the order. War was turning out to be pretty fun, and if things keep going as it does, the war would probably last a long time which meant more fun._

_During his walking, he heard someone yelling for him. "Skywarp!" Skywarp turn around to see Thundercracker running towards him._

_"What?" Skywarp asked. Thundercracker slowed down to a stop near Skywarp._

_"We're going to attack Tarn in a megacycle. Starscream is waiting for us. He has a plan to take it down."_

_"Alright, lead the way," Skywarp said, in a bit of an excited tone._

_"This way," Thundercracker said, walking in the direction he was running from. Skywarp followed him with a bit of a spring of his step._

_It was time for more violence._

XXX

"He's waking up."

"Don't let him wake up."

"Sedate him now."

"Sedating him now"

XXX

_Skywarp was flying over Tarn. He was flying behind Thundercracker and Starscream. They had just taken down the leader of the Autobots here along with several other high-ranking officers. The city was theirs now and there was nothing they could do to take it back. The three Trinemates knew this place well as they grew up here, albeit in different political circles. Skywarp was in the lower class, while Starscream and Thundercracker both were in the middle class, although with very different political influence._

_The Autobots had retreated already and trine was heading to a rendezvous point at the center of the city. They city was a bit harder to win over than Vos, but still fall pretty easy, once again with heavy causality for the Autobots and little for the Decepticons. Together, the trine had killed more than fifty of the Autobots, with Starscream taking the leader and several others out with a well-placed shot with his missiles._

_Starscream was bragging right now, and Skywarp really wanted to tell him to shut the frag up. Yeah, he had the plan to take out the defense of the city and killed the leader of it, but still, it was getting annoying. He decided to quell this aggression by talking to Thundercracker. "Hey, TC,?" he asked._

_"Yes?" Thundercracker asked, in a calm tone, although Skywarp noted a hint of aggravation in his tone. Starscream was getting to him, too._

_"What's the next city we're going to hit?" he asked._

_"More than likely, the city of Helex, although that hasn't been confirmed yet. It's either that or Tesarus. Why?" Thundercracker asked._

_"Just wondering. So what does Helax do, anyway?"_

_"I don't know. I only heard a few things about it. The only thing I know for certain is that a good amount of drugs come from that area, both legal and illegal. It's regarded as a drug capital and the Autobots had been really, really trying to take them down. If we liberate the city, the ruler of the drug trade there said he is willing to support us in the war effort by supplying us with medical drugs and giving us some firepower they manage to steal," Thundercracker said, giving a exaggerated sigh as he finished speaking. That was a lot to said._

_"How much Autobots are going to be there?" he asked._

_"Maybe about five-thousand. The Autobots haven't exactly gotten the wake-up call yet, and still haven't send reinforcement to the cities we're bordering."_

_"So it isn't going to be a difficult fight?" Skywarp asked._

_"No. Not yet, but I imagine their will be soon. Be careful, Skywarp. The war is just beginning and I would really hate to see you die."_

_"What about old Screamer?" he asked._

_"Eh, not as much." Skywarp chuckle a bit at that._

_"What was that?" Starscream asked, in a slightly annoyed tone._

_"Nothing, Screamer." Skywarp said._

_"It's Starscream, not screamer." Starscream insisted back at the Skywarp._

_"You're sure Screamer, because I hear a lot of people you'd been in the berth with said that you like it when they called you that."_

_"They do not! Shut up!"_

_"I heard you and Slipstream get in the berth a lot."_

_"No, we do not! Shut up, or I'll throw you in the brig when we get back."_

_"Alright… Screamer."_

_"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"_

XXX

"He's waking up again."

"Frag, Scavenger! Sedate him again, now. Stronger dose this time."

"I'm doing it. I'm doing it."

"Stay calm Skywarp. Just go back to sleep now. You hear me. Just go back to sleep…

XXX

_Skywarp was flying around the city of Helex, hiding from Starscream. Starscream had put him in the brig when they got back and release him when they were attacking Helex. Skywarp had repaid him for it by pushing him down a set of stairs. And they were very long, too._

_He was flying between two buildings and then into the streets, which were littered with the corpses of Autobots and the occasional Decepticon. The Decepticons had completely rocked the Autobots, here. It was less of a battle and more of a massacre. The Decepticons attack them from all angles, while the drug ruler own men attacked from inside the city, setting off several bombs and severally weakening the Autobots forces at the battle._

_Skywarp was just fine, but than a jet came into view. It was… Thundercracker, in his glorious blue self. Skywarp mentally cheer in happiness. "Skywarp, why do you enjoy pushing everyone down the steps so much?" Thundercracker asked._

_"It's fun. Do I need another reason?" Skywarp said as if it was blatantly obvious._

_"Actually, yes. Yes you do." Thundercracker said nonchalantly, flying with Skywarp._

_"Oh, well, Starscream did throw me in the brig, so I decided to get payback."_

_"Which will get you throw right back in the brig. It also doesn't explain why you do it to everyone else, including me," he said, emphasizing that last part._

_"Uhhh, it's fun. Do I seriously need any other explanation besides that."_

_"Skywarp, please think about the consequences of your action."_

_"I did. They all end with me laughing my bearing of, along with everyone else."_

_"Skywarp, how many of us have you push down the stairs." Skywarp thought about that hard. Really hard._

_"I don't know. I lost count at 30."_

_"And how many of us have you pranked through other ways." Skywarp also had to think about that. When you prank so many people, you end up losing track over time._

_"I don't know. I lost count at about a hundred."_

_"Guess what, Skywarp."_

_"What?"_

_"All those people are really going to want revenge on you."_

_"Hey, it's not my fault that people can't take a joke._

_"Exactly who have you prank besides me and Starscream?"_

_"Well, there was this time I stole Bludgeon's sword…"_

_"That's a very stupid move Skywarp."_

_"Oh, and I pour paint on Buzzsaw, once."_

_"I repeat, very stupid."_

_"Also, I sort of hit on Flamewar a few times, although each time, she's threaten to kill me in more inventive ways. I think she likes me, though. She just afraid to admit it."_

_"…you're screw, Skywarp."_

XXX

"We're going to attach the arms now and… is Skywarp back online now? Oh, for primus's sake, Scavenger, sedate again."

"Got it, Hook."

"Skywarp, please stay offline for the rest of the fragging procedure. Flatline is going to reattach the arm and you waking up in the middle of it would be very bad for your health. Now, go back to dreamland and stay there this time. ..

XXX

_Skywarp was on the ground, holding his chassis. The Autobots had retreated, but one had manage to hit Skywarp in chassis, almost hitting the spark-chamber. Skywarp made a mental note to remember that slagger and give him a very painful death later. Right now, he had to get medical help. He was losing energon and really needed the help._

_Skywarp got up slowly and searching for a medic, the various cheering Decepticons completely ignoring him. He walked pass everyone, bumping into a few of them, but none of them caring. They just won, who cares about a seeker that happens to be injure._

_Apparently, someone did._

_"Skywarp, are you alright?" said robot turn around to see Thundercracker walking towards him._

_"Yeah, I'm fine, except for the hole in my chassis," Skywarp answer sarcastically. Thundercracker took note of the hole in his chest. That was going to be a problem._

_"Come on," he said, "let me get you to a medic. I know where one is at." Thundercracker grabbed a hold of Skywarp and led him somewhere. Where, Skywarp didn't quite know. He was just walking with him. He was currently wondering why Thundercracker was helping him. He imagine Thundercracker to be a little less helpful than that, like most of the Decepticons and him._

_"Hey TC. Why are you helping me?" Skywarp asked._

_"Because I care about you, now shut up and let me get you to a medic," Thundercracker said. Skywarp was a little surprise about that._

_"Really?"_

_"Yes, really. I care about Starscream too and he cares about us too, believe it or not." That genuinely surprise Skywarp. Starscream showing a feeling but pride and arrogance. "I know it may not seem like it, but we're trinemates, and it's have to care about each other in order to work as a effective team. If we don't, we're just another causality of war, and that's the last thing any of us want." Huh, Skywarp didn't think of it that way._

_"Hey, Thundercracker."_

_"What."_

_"Promise me that we'll get through this war together." That caught Thundercracker temporally off guard._

_"Say that again."_

_"I said, promise me that we'll get through this war together," Skywarp repeated, sounding a bit out of it. He must've lost a lot of energon. Thundercracker figure the best way to get him to be quiet was to agree with him._

_"Alright. I promise we'll get through to this together."_

_"You swear by Primus?"_

_"Yes, I swear by Primus."_

_"Good." Skywarp looked really tired now. "I really want to take a nap."_

_"And you will, after we get you to the medics. In fact, I see them now. Hook! Get your aft over here now." Skywarp didn't get much after that as everything turn into a haze and he slip into stasis._

_And to think, Thundercracker lied to him._


	18. Plans and Dreams PT 3

Killshot was waiting outside the med-bay. He was slouch on the wall, arms cross, trying to look badass. He was mostly failing, due to his leg; sort of put him in a awkward position with him shifting the leg to change position every few seconds. Most of the vehicons didn't notice though. They just walk past him, minding their own business. Killshot really wish that the medics would hurry up in there and treat him instead. Sure, Skywarp was in massive pain and Shockwave had been offline for a while, but his leg was really annoying him and he really wanted it fixed fast.

Killshot was considering if there was something else to do besides waiting. The base was big, so it probably had some entertainment. Maybe they had a shooting range, or better yet, a bar. That would really do good right now. Just sit back and drink some high-grade. Of course, the fact that bar being on a military was slim to none did cross his mind, it was still a worthy prospect to ask someone. Question was, who should he ask?

"Hey, loser!" Looked like someone came to instead. Killshot turn around to see a red and white jet walking towards him. The first thing Killshot notice was his scars. Honestly, he had more scars than most of the people he'd seen, but not quite the most. He personally knew a guy who got bombed three different times and still came out alive, though looking much uglier than he previous was. Judging from the scars on this unfortunate bastard, most of it came from close-corner fights with blades than explosion and gunfire like most people. Although, he did look familiar, he just couldn't remember where. He distinctly remembering him having a lot less scars than before. Immediately after that analysis, Killshot realize that the jet insulted him. That would not go unpunished.

"What do you want, slagger?" Killshot ask. If he was going to insult him, he would insult him back.

"Just wanted to know who in the pit you are, pinhead." Pinhead? Really? "I don't remember seeing you around before. Are you with that ship that came in?"

"Yeah, I'm with the ship, pit spawn." To be honest, he sort of looked liked a pit spawn. "I'm waiting for the docs in there to get done with the others so they can patch me up," he said, pointing to the part of his leg that looked like blue metal was hastily slapped on. "Got that from some… dramatic events."

"Well, you are a grounder, so it was bound to happen." Oh, slag no, did he just made fun of his alt mode. "Who else is here?"

"Well, coward," people loved to call flyers that," there's Shockwave and Skywarp in there getting patch up; Swindle, who should be talking to that Onslaught guy; and Thundercracker, who should be pushing up lugnuts." The jet looked a little surprise at that.

"Wow. A lot of heavy hitters there, right fragger?" Fragger? He can certainly do better than that.

"You can say that again, slagbag." Not the best thing he's come up with. The jet looked at him a bit, before taking again.

"You know what, limpy," Oh, great, now he was making fun of his leg, "I like you. Names Misfire. Yours?" Oh look, he was being nice. Bleh.

"Names Killshot, assassin and bodyguard. Currently working with that aft, Swindle."

"Killshot? Not exactly a subtle nomenclature." Noma- what?

"Can you say that word again. I didn't quite understand that."

"Nomenclature. Say it with me. No-men-cla-ture. It means name." Seriously. They come up with words that big just to say name. What has language come to? Now that Killshot understand what he said, he thought about it. Alright, sure, Killshot wasn't exactly subtle, but it did get the point across.

"Well, it's not exactly my real name. My other name was definitely not a name for a assassin, so I switch it. Seriously, my other name is so stupid. Speaking of subtle names, Misfire? Really?" Having a name like Misfire wasn't exactly subtle either.

"Hey, it's the name everybody gives me. I can't even remember what I was called before. Doesn't really matter now, anyway," Misfire said, shrugging his shoulders. Well, that was awkward, but that's over, now onto the important question.

"Hey, Misfire, do you know if there's a bar here or at least a place where I can get some high-grade."

"Eh, if there's a bar here, no one told me about it and I haven't seen it. Although, could a secret place run by a vehicon. I mean, looked at them. It's obvious that there's planning something, and all good planners need a good drinking spot to wash away all your sorrows when you completely failed at your plan and you become the laughing stock of the place." Killshot looked at Misfire liked he seen an insane person or at least someone who had taken some drugs.

"Tell me, are you on anything?" Killshot asked. Misfire looked insulted at that.

"Me, take drugs. Are you kidding, of course I do." Well, that explains it. "Before this whole civil war thing broke out and everybody started slaughtering each other, I live a pretty erratic lifestyle. Drugs were the name of the game."

"You were a drug enforcer?"

"Nope. I was an actor." Oh. Ohhhhhhhh. That explains a whole lot. Actors were notorious for the amount of drugs they took. Killshot looked at him again and remember exactly where he knew him from.

"Weren't you the hero of the movie, 'The Guardians of Uraitahn.' You know, the movie about this guy who went to some places and punch out some weird god-thing that really wanted to destroy the universe or something like that." Misfire looked absolutely giddy at that.

"Yes, the movie about spiritual awesomeness and kick-aft action sequences. So many cool explosions and let me tell you, the romance interest was quite wonderful in the berth."

"Yeah, cool. Whatever," Killshot interjected. "I remember that movie for awesome music playing throughout. Some seriously cool riffs were playing throughout the whole thing. The pretty explosions help too."

"Oh, yeah, the music was pretty cool too. Also, whoever played the Hallifalacious deserve goal stars for holding his high-grade. He could hold it better than anyone else. Man, that was a glorious afterparty." Misfire looked away, deep in thought, remembering the afterparty. "So much high-grade involve in that, it would've probably thrown Primus under the table."

"Good that you have fond memories," a voice behind Misfire said. Misfire hastily turned around, and met the black and red Dead End, his gold face looking at him with a face that said 'I'm dead inside and you should be too.' His purple optics looked at the two before asking the question, "May I ask why you two are standing out here?"

"Oh, I'm just here talking to my new friend," Misfire said, tipping his head towards Killshot. Dead End looked at Killshot, both giving each other the best glare they can; Dead End giving the 'We're all going to die anyway' while Killshot gave his best 'I'll kill you' glare. Misfire looked at the two, wondering who was going to back down first. Finally, Killshot spoke.

"If you're wondering why I'm here, I came to get my leg checked up. Unfortunately, the more injure personal go first while I stay out here trying to ignore the dull pain coming from my leg. It's really annoying," Killshot said, ending his motive for being here.

"Good for you, I guess," Dead End said, shrugging his shoulders before walking towards the door. "I'm heading to talk to Hook and Scavenger. Onslaught's orders."

"Why?" asked Misfire, wondering what was he doing with his therapist, no matter how crappy he was.

"They're going on a mission with me, Swindle, and Killshot," Dead End said.

"Wait, wait. Hold on. What mission am I going with you two?" Killshot asked.

"We're going to figure out who killed Thundercracker and kill him. Megatron's orders. Now, if you excuse me." Dead End walked past the two and open the door to the med-bay and walked in, door closing behind him. Killshot looked at him while he left, taking in his word. He was going after some killer with Swindle, Dead End, and two other people he didn't know. Just great.

"So, it looks like you're going on a adventure." Killshot looked at Misfire. Well, guess he was.

"Yeah, probably be better than just watching Swindle deal. It was starting to get boring and I hate it when things get boring. Solving a murder is something I've never done before, so this might be interesting."

"Man, I want to solve a murder. It be just that time I was a detective in the gritty film noir 'Seamless Clarity.' Man, that was a fun one."

"Yeah, sure whatever." Killshot looked at Misfire again before realizing something. "Hey, weren't you on that soap opera, 'At the First Sign of Rust.'" Suddenly, Misfire looked him with a monotone expression.

"If you tell anyone about," Misfire said, in the most threatening, "I will murder you in your recharge state, chop you up into pieces, and bury your body, understand?" Killshot looked at Misfire with sudden fear. He really didn't expect that from him. Why did things have to escalate quicky?

"Yeah, sure man. Whatever." Misfire looked happy at that.

"Good decision, my friend." Killshot really hated the tone in his voice. Who the heck would get upset at the fact that they were on a fragging soap opera. Yeah, sure, it was probably stupid, cheesy, and all kinds of other bad words that could be use to describe it, but was it really worth murdering someone for?

"Yeah, say, exactly what drugs are you on?" Killshot asked, in a tensed tone.

"Oh, just some circuit boosters. Keeps me nice and alert," Misfire said, looking please.

"Where do you get the drugs at? Aren't they illegal on military bases."

"Oh, I get them from our resident chemist, Mixmaster. He makes all kinds of good stuff besides circuit boosters. Of course, I owe him some things in return, but it all works out well." Misfire said. "Said, you won't be telling anybody about this, right?"

"I won't tell a single soul about this." Killshot said. Just stick it out. Soon, you'll be away from the crazy person and chasing down a killer.

The door to the med-bay open. "I'm telling you, he's coming with us." Hook said, in an annoyed tone, sounding like he said this before. "You know me Dead End. I am a artist and I don't settle for anything less than perfection."

"Yes, but-"

"No buts, it's final. Now get out before I kick you out myself." Dead End let out a sigh, knowing it was useless, before walking out, the door shutting behind him. Dead End looked at the two who had heard the conversation and approach them.

"What's up, Deady? How did Hook piss you off," Misfire said, looking at Dead End. Dead End let out a sign before answering.

"Misfire, get your stuff ready to go. You're coming with us."

"Wait, hold on. What did you just say?" Killshot ask, looking at Dead End with a bewilder expression.

"Hook is Misfire's psychologist and the only here capable of doing psychology. Since he can't leave Misfire behind, he's taking him with us, whether Onslaught likes it or not." Dead End say. Killshot looked at Misfire, who had a look of pure glee in his expression.

"You hear that, friend. We're going on a trip together. Won't this be fun?" Misfire said. Killshot looked at him, barely holding back of scream of rage.

Primus really hated him.


	19. Sleep Shake PT 1

Waiting for Onslaught was boring. Very, very, very boring. Swindle had to curb his boredom by counting up how much everything in the room was worth. The screens were big and clear and could easily bring in a couple thousand. The control panels were built quite well and looked very sturdy. He could probably bring a few hundred from each one.

And he did that for everything else in the room. And when he ran out, he counted how much the floor and roof cost. Unfortunately, this end up making him sleepy instead of keeping him up. Counting money sometimes could be the exact same thing as counting sheep sometimes. Counting how much every single bit of the floor and ceiling was worth was just like that. Eventually, he couldn't take it any longer and slip off into recharge, remembering.

XXX

Many vorns ago.

Swindle walk through the hallways, with Vortex beside him. Vortex was red and yellow, and his alt mode represented a helicopter. Vortex, at the moment, was telling Swindle about a recent interrogation. "And then, he went on and on about his family waiting for him when he got back home. Honestly, I was getting a little bit bored hearing him scream. I've had been doing it for nearly a whole megacycle and he was still begging. I mean, come on, how long can one beg."

"Apparently, a long time," Swindle commented. "So, what happen next? Did you let him live or did you let him go, not that I don't already know what you did next," Swindle said, already knowing what Vortex did. Expecting a different ending to Vortex's interrogation was like asking Megatron to consider peace: it wasn't going to happen.

"Oh, I let him go. Hearing him scream all the way down made up for him begging to much." This is probably the point where one mentions Vortex method of interrogation: high-altitude flying while the victim was hanging onto a cable. "And when I found him, he was all smash up into many pieces. I'm pretty sure I found a lot of transmission fluid around the area." Typical day for Vortex. "So, why are we going to the command center?" Vortex ask, changing gears towards a new topic.

"I don't know," Swindle said, "you're the second-in-command, not me. You're suppose to be the one who knows what to do."

"Oh, yeah, your right. Hey, look, we're here." Sure enough, they were at the door. The two walk towards the door and it open up to let them in. In the room, there were several people. Blast Off and Brawl were standing near one of the corners, Brawl looking ready to punch something and Blast Off looking like he didn't care about anything, which was typical behavior of the two, and Onslaught was in the center of the room, planning something. Yep, normal day around here.

"Vortex. Swindle. Good, you're here," Onslaught said, addressing the tow new arrivals.

"Sorry we're a little late Ons. Someone here," he pointed to Swindle, "was trying to make a deal with Mixmaster about things."

"What?" Onslaught asked.

"Vortex, if you say anything about what I did, they won't find your body tomorrow," Swindle whisper to Vortex.

"About his paint job." Vortex lied, "I don't blame him either. I mean come on, purple and green? That goes together as well as Swindle and charity."

"I can agree to that." Swindle said, confirming Vortex's lie and his jab at him. Hey, Vortex wasn't lying.

"Well, next time, don't get distracted," Onslaught said, using his leader voice. "We got a important mission coming up."

"And what's that?" Swindle asked. Swindle, although not the biggest fan of getting shot at, was a fan of going to new places and seeing what he could loot. Before Onslaught could answer, Blast Off answered first.

"To Solaris." He said simply, bored. Onslaught gave the purple and brown con a look.

"And how did you know about that already?" Onslaught questioned.

"Word of mouth. Some people get too excited and just talk out loud so that everybody else can hear them." Onslaught looked at him for a little bit before speaking.

"I'll take your word for it. Now, does everybody know why Solaris is such a good place to target." No one answered. "Good. Then that means not everything from the meeting has been known, at least for us. Solaris is a big city and, as such, has a lot of things hiding in it. What is it we want, is only known to Megatron, but we do have a plan to take over the city.

"The main problem are the anti-air guns. Theirs dozens of them scour throughout the city, and will knock out anything in the air. If it flies, it dies. Their all situated at choke points and open areas, leaving them plenty of room to shoot them. If we want the city, we're going to have to take those out.

"The plan is to take a large amount of the troops on one side of the city with ground forces led by Motormaster and the rest of the Stunticons. We're planning on them to meet them with most of their forces so that we a small force, A.K.A. us, could go into this building." He pointed out a building on the map. "The problem with the anti-air guns is they are all hook up to one massive generator in this building. Take it out and the guns go down. Problem is, this generator was built to withstand any kind of damage from explosives."

"So how do we take it out if we can't destroy it?" Brawl, the dark green tank, asked.

"Swindle is the one for the answer to that," Onslaught answered.

"Huh?" Swindle spat out unintelligibly.

"You have something for this right? I told Megatron you did." Onslaught said.

"Uh, maybe. It's a prototype schematic for a bomb I found earlier. Instead of regular explosives, it's a EMP. It has a short distance, but more than enough to take out the generator. It's activated either remotely or manually, although why you have a manual switch for a EMP bomb is something I don't understand. It's basically the same as killing yourself if you activate it manually."

"Good. Once the anti-air tanks are down, we'll have air support led by Starscream to attack the city and then it would be only a matter of time before the city falls to us. Nice, quick, and clean. Any questions? No? Good. Rest up, we're going to attack the city tomorrow." With that, the meeting was done and everybody left, leaving Vortex to annoy Swindle.

"Hey, Stumpy," he said, using the nickname he personally give to Swindle due to his size difference when compared to everyone else, "what do you think of the mission."

"I don't know. Right now, I got a bomb to build."

"I thought you already build it?"

"I didn't. I said I had the prototype's schematics. I didn't say I'd build it, yet.

"Oh, well, sucks for you. Later." With that, Vortex left without another word, looking to stalk someone else for the time being. Swindle, now by himself thought about the mission. Sneak in, plant the bomb, leave, and activate it while looking cool (okay, the last part isn't really needed). Nice, quick, and simple. It should be a easy mission.

Unfortunately, that proved to be far from the truth.

XXX

"Swindle, wake up." Swindle optics snapped opening, looking straight into Onslaught's optics.

"I'm up. I'm up. I'm up. What is it?" Swindle asked, still a little sleepy.

"Well, you fell into recharge mode, for starters. How long has it been since you've recharge?" Onslaught asked.

"It's been a while," Swindle admitted. "Today's been a long, stressful day."

"You probably need to recharge for the rest of the day," Onslaught said, hoping Swindle would listen to his advice.

"Nah, I'm good. I've done worse. Did you just wake me up to check on me?"

"No, I didn't. I've been informed by Dead End that you're going to have another person joining you."

"Who?"

"Misfire."

"Misfire? Wasn't he one of the few survivors of Blackout's squad?"

"One of two. Him and Makeshift."

"Why is he joining my mission? Last thing I want is someone who can't ever shoot a gun." Swindle said. He really didn't want him on the ship.

"Because he happens to be one of the medics, Hook, patient. By patient, I mean for therapy." Onslaught said, pointing out the last part.

"Therapy? Now I really don't want him."

"You either take him, or your going on the trip without Hook and Scavenger, but with either Scalpel or Flatline. I highly recommend keeping them, considering I consider them the least likely to kill you during operations." Swindle took that last part in before picking an option. It really was a easy choice.

"Fine. Misfire can come, but he better not be a burden on this trip. I really don't need dead weight. So, how's everybody else?"

"Skywarp just got out of surgery. He's going to make it and, surprisingly, is expected to make a quick recovery."

"What about the missing arm?" Swindle asked.

"They used Thundercracker's arm to replace it. Thundercracker's arm actually sustained very little damage from the blast and was kept mostly intact."

"Wait, hold up. They use his recently deceased trinemates arm to replace it."

"Yeah. What else were they suppose to replace it with?"

"How about the spare seeker arms I have in my ship." Onslaught looked at him with a slightly disgusted face. "What can I say? Unlike most people, I take 'arms dealing' very literally.

"There's nothing wrong with it," Onslaught lied, clearly disgusted with it, "I'm just surprise you actually keep arms in your ship. Exactly what else is in your ship?" Onslaught asked, asking a really good question.

"Enough illegal stuff to probably sentence me to life in prison," Swindle said casually, as if it was normal to have that many illegal goods in one spot. "I probably have enough explosive to take out the whole Autobot army at its best."

"Alright, well, aside from Skywarp, Shockwave is being work on right and now, and then Killshot is next. Do you, by any chance, happen to have a spare eye for Shockwave?"

"Actually, yes I do," Swindle replied, Onslaught looking at him with a face that said 'you got to be kidding with me'. "You want it I'm guessing, so follow me." Swindle walk towards the door and head out. Onslaught looked at him as he went, noting that things do change quite a lot. Swindle had never sold body parts, last he check, which, to be honest, was a long time ago. Swindle probably just expanded his business as usual.

With that in mind, he followed Swindle out the door.


	20. Sleep Shake PT 2

Killshot was limping around the hallways, passed all the Vehicons, wanting to be away from the menace, Misfire. Odds are, Misfire would just wait for him outside the med-bay, wanting to talk to his 'friend.' Personally, Killshot thought he should get fragged.

The base was huge, and easy to get lost in. His visor was helping to make sure he didn't walk to the same place he was already at, but didn't help in figuring out what was in front of him. The hallways started bleeding together, looking the same. One could probably get lost here for hours. Killshot finally decided to stop walking around like a idiot and see if he could find some way to entertain himself. He entered a random door into a room.

The room was well-lit and purple, a nice reprieve from the beige of the hallways. In the room, there were a lot of machines and vials. The thing that Killshot paid attention to the most was the walking green-and-purple paint job monstrosity working on the machines. Why the frag did Constructicons have such terrible paint job. They probably gave the fashion police spark-attacks just from looking at them.

Killshot paid attention to what the Constructicon looked like. He was a big one, definitely bigger than the other two that was in the med-bay. He seemed to be muttering to himself, too. The con was working on some chemicals, though didn't know what they were. He apparently hasn't seen him yet, which wasn't going to last much longer. "Hey, big guy. Who are you?" Mixmaster turned sharply at him.

"I could ask you the same question. Please, tell me, who are you and tell me why you entered my lab unannounced before I pour acid on you," said the con. Killshot guessed from his expression that he was very serious and decided to answer the question.

"Chill out. I'm part of the ship that entered a little while ago. The name's Killshot." Mixmaster looked please at that and went back to his work, ignoring him again. "So what is your name?" Killshot asked, wanting a answer.

"The name is Mixmaster. I'm the chemist around here. I'm responsible for all the drugs and explosives around here. I can also make your death look like a accident if you keep pestering me," Mixmaster answered, leaving the threat in the air.

"Alright, alright, I get it. So, where's the other Constructicons?" KIllshot asked, further pushing his luck.

"Hook and Scavenger are in the med-bay. Everybody else is on a different planet. Now, leave. I decided that of you keep annoying me anymore, I'll blow you up instead." Killshot took note of the anxious tone in his voice. He must not want to talk about it. Killshot, being Killshot, was interested in why and wanted to know, death threats be damn.

"Aren't you suppose to be together? Last I check, when you're all together, you can form into a awesome mech that can destroy everything in its path. And unlike other groups, like the Combaticons and Stunticons, all of your members are alive." Mixmaster send a death glare at him as he finished his sentenced. Killshot realize that he was probably in uncharted space with this topic.

"There was a… conflict between us." Mixmaster said, sounding like he had this conversation before. "Specifically, between Hook and Scrapper. Hook, being the egotistical person that he is, considered himself a better leader than Scrapper and wanted to be the leader. It got worse between the two and soon, we had to pick a side between the two. Scavenger sided with Hook because he was his assistant and I sided with him, because he allowed me to do some things that Scrapper didn't approve of. In the end, infighting between us got so bad; we had to be moved to different planets, hence why we're not together anymore," Mixmaster said, finishing his reason. "It's not exactly a secret why we broke up. You could just ask Hook or Scavenger. Don't know why you had to ask someone who just wants to be left alone."

"Hey, sorry man. Didn't know what happen between you guys," Killshot said, trying his best to sound sincere, ever though he wasn't. He really wasn't sorry for a lot of things.

"It's alright. You just annoyed me while I was doing my work which could blow up the whole base. You know, nothing important," Mixmaster said, sarcasm practically spewing out of his mouth.

"Hey, I said I was sorry. Besides, Hook and Scavenger are too busy doing surgery, so I couldn't exactly ask them anything," Killshot said, rationalizing everything he said. "Plus, I kinda just came in here by accident. Seriously, this place is huge."

"Well than, have you considering asking someone for directions for where you need to go? It would certainly avoid the conversation we're having right now." Mixmaster said, letting his annoyment with the sniper show itself.

"I wasn't looking for a place to go. Just checking the place out and trying to get away from Misfire." Mixmaster looked at him with a interested tone.

"And what did my assistant do to make you avoid him?"

"Besides the fact that he's not right in the head, he annoys me and I'm going to live with him for awhile. Primus must hate me for some reason."

"He's leaving?" Mixmaster asked, sounding actually a little sad.

"Yeah, along with Dead End, Hook, and Scavenger. We're going after some aft that mess with the wrong people," Killshot explain. He realized something. "Wait, did you said that Misfire was your assistant?"

"Yes , I did. He's my assistant due to a similar problem we both have."

"Let me guess: drug addiction," Killshot said. Mixmaster looked at him with a gaze that could melt ice.

"How did you figure that out?" he asked, in a surprise and angry tone.

"Misfire told me that he was on some circuit boosters. Figure you probably had the same problem," Killshot said.

"Yeah, well, I'm in one of my calmer moods. Haven't touch the syk for a while, although I'm sure I'll use it sooner or later," Mixmaster said, a hint of sadness in his voice.

"Syk? Isn't that ban by everyone, including the Decepticons?" Killshot asked.

"Yes, it is, but what Megatron doesn't know won't hurt me. Onslaught had agree to help keep this quiet for me, along with Hook, Scavenger, and Misfire," Mixmaster explained. He looked at Killshot. "If you tell Megatron, I will make your death a accident, you understand that?"

"Yes," Killshot answered instantly.

"Good. I think it's time for you to go." With that, Mixmaster went back to his chemicals, not paying any more attention to his guest. Killshot, for his part, took his advice and left, heading for the med-bay. They had to be almost done with Shockwave.


	21. Sleep Shake PT 3

Shockwave was walking around his lab. He was hoping to do the usual: hypothesize, experiment, analysis, and (rarely) answers. Every now and then, he gets a prisoner to interrogate, or get supplies from someone. Just a normal, boring day.

But something was not right.

For starters, there wasn't a single vehicon around. That was very odd. They didn't do much. Just mostly hang around, help him with experiments, and do errands for him, but at least there was company and a sign that he wasn't alone.

He was very alone right now.

Another thing was the fact that he couldn't get a single person to answer his transmission. Everything had been met with static, static, and more static. No one answer. Not Megatron. Not Starscream. Not Soundwave. Not Swindle. Not everyone. That was less odd and more incredibly suspicious. The only way that could happen was if: A) all engage in a battle at once, which was highly unlikely, or B) someone was specifically jamming his signal, which actually sounded likely.

One more reason was the fact that a lot of his stuff were missing. I don't just mean a misplaced scalpel. I'm talking the fact that most of his interrogation equipment, including his cortical patch, was missing, whole machines were gone, and his computer banks were completely erased. The fact that someone accomplished all of this without him knowing was shocking, since it was basically impossible. The vehicons should have stop them and warned him of any intruders, but they just weren't here. There were no signs of battle either, which just made the whole thing more strange.

Also, he has scorch marks all over him. How the slag did that happen, he didn't know, but he didn't feel anything. He had to have been caught in a explosion of some sort, he just didn't know any explosions he'd been in recently. Just one more thing to add to the pile of mysteries. Oh, and his optic was cracked too, limiting his vision. He was certainly madder at that than at the scorch marks.

Lastly, there were minor earthquakes going on. Not major ones, just minor ones. That's not the problem, though. The problem was that Cybertron was a METAL planet, not an EARTH planet, and thus, couldn't happen. Except they were. Honestly, a lot of strange things were happening that really shouldn't be possible.

Shockwave was walking through his lab, thinking how all of these happened, while trying to ignore the fact that his consoles were missing. They were bolted to the floor, and yet, no marks were there to indicate that it was there in the first place. Just one more thing to add to the implausibility of the place.

Shockwave try to figure out where to go. It's been what felt like vorns since he's been in this twisted place and he has no idea what's going on. He thought what who cause this. Autobots? Unlikely, considering they would have taken him prisoner instead of leaving him here. Other Decepticons? Also unlikely, considering what he would do to them once he found out who did it. Some random people who just came to annoy him? That, surprisingly, was starting to become the most likely, although still not a good chance of that happening.

Shockwave's mind started drifting to other things, specifically Cybertron. Yeah, everybody probably thinks he's a psychopath who cares for nothing except himself or Megatron, but Shockwave's first and primarily concern will always be Cybertron. If anybody says otherwise, they were people who didn't think things through completely about what he wants, or was a Autobot.

Cybertron was a dead planet and Shockwave would absolutely love to restore it to previous state. Cybertron was absolutely breathtaking at night. Stars filled the night sky and there moon, Luna-2, shown itself to the planet. There was a Luna-1, but that, for some odd reason, disappear without a trace.

The more he thought about it, the more he thought about a completely obvious solution to his escape: the door. Shockwave walked away from his lab through the hallway to the door. When he reached it, he pressed the button.

The door didn't move a single inch.

Shockwave groan in annoyance. Of course it wouldn't be that easy. Everything had to go wrong and hinder his progress. He stood around the area trying to think of something to do. The more he stays her, the more he was sure he was in a purgatory of some sort.

The ground quaked harder than before.

Shockwave had another idea. He went to his interrogation/security room. There were cameras there and he could see exactly what happen. It might not help him escape, but it would help him figure out what exactly happen, if the footage was left untouched, of course. Or if the console was even there. He enters the room to see that … the console was still there!

Shockwave approached the console and activate it. He immediately head to the security footage. He saw multiple screens of his lab, showing the most important parts of the base. Shockwave pressed rewind on the console, watching himself go backward through the base. He saw himself go through the exact same motions he went through earlier. He watched himself until he reached the berth. As soon as he had hit the birth, the footage cut out hitting static, signifying the end of it.

Shockwave was really mad at that and another quake shook the building, making it slightly creak, but he didn't pay any attention to that. He was more focus on figuring out how to get out of this place or contacting somebody to get him out. He was really getting tired of this. It was becoming a hopeless situation.

He looked around his own prison. He noticed the room was dark, as to his own specification. All the screens were still there, but the some of the consoles were gone. His tools were all missing, except for the forceps. The walls were cracking due to the quakes and Shockwave imagine that if the quakes get worse, the building wouldn't last much longer.

Looking around the room allow him to notice something on the screens' reflection: his scorch marks were gone. Shockwave look at his arm, confirming it, although a little difficult due to his cracked vision. Now that was odd. You don't just magically heal like that, not without proper justification. Shockwave tried to think this through, looking for more answers.

Another quake shakes the building up, letting even more cracks show up and some even letting light in.

Shockwave couldn't think of a answer for this. For all logical purposes, it was fragging impossible. The only way this could be done was magic and last he checked, there wasn't any magic around here. He even checked the history of the base before he set up shop here. He wasn't disturbing a burial ground here, so no chance of that happening, which sounded stupid to Shockwave, since stuff like that was impossible. It just didn't happen.

Another quake hits, just as hard as the last.

Shockwave notice something peculiar. His vision was return to normal. No more cracks. This confuse Shockwave to no end. An optic fixing itself was impossible. The thought that it could fix itself was illogical. Everything that's happen here right now has just been illogical. Illogical, illogical, illogical, illogical…

Another quake shook the building, this one much harder than the others. Shockwave try to keep his balance, although. The cracks started spreading everywhere, pieces of the building falling off, letting a blinding light shine through. Shockwave looked around as the building cracked opened, letting more and more light in. So this was how he was going to die. By a impossible event in his own base. Shockwave wondered how illogical it was, but not for long, as the building completely fell apart, letting the bright light engulf him…

XXX

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Shockwave."


	22. Complex Terms PT 1

It was all a dream. Just one big, long dream. Shockwave mentally groan to himself. Of course it was a dream. Everything that happened could only be possible in a dream. Why he didn't figure that out earlier, he didn't know.

He looked around. It looked like he was in a med-bay. Where this med-bay was, he didn't know. He looked around at the occupants of the room. There was two Constructicons, Hook and Scavenger if he remember correctly, two Combaticons, Onslaught and Swindle, a Stunticon, Dead End, two medics, Flatline and Scalpel, and a seeker on another berth who had a lot of his purple paint job gone. Probably Skywarp, due to whatever left of the color of his paint job and his body shape.

He looked at himself. His paint job was definitely not in the best of shape. A lot of it was scorch off by burn wounds. Judging by the fact that he's not in pain, they must've handle whatever damage happen to him. That or they turn off his pain processor. Aside from that, he looked good.

"Are you alright, Shockwave?" Onslaught asked. Shockwave thought that through for a second before answering.

"I am just fine." He looked around the room. "Where is this place located?" he asked.

"You're on Dabola, not too far from Cybertron," Onslaught answer.

"Why am I here?" Shockwave asked.

"Swindle over here found you injure at your base. You had several burn wounds and a crack optic, which Flatline, Hook, Scavenger, and Scalpel fixed." Onslaught looked at Shockwave. "Tell me, how did you get injure?"

Shockwave wondered about that? How did he get injure? Suddenly, it came to him. "Starscream let the prisoners escape and I tried to pursue them through the space bridge. I was awarded with a shot to my optic from the femme, Arcee. After that, I was caught in the explosion from the space bridge," Shockwave answered.

"Good that you remember that". He turned to Flatline. "How long before Shockwave is completely rested?"

"My guess, shouldn't take more than a couple of Megacycles. After that, he should be good enough to walk around."

"Good. I'll go tell Megatron what Shockwave said." With that Onslaught followed by Dead End, headed out of the room. The door open, where they nearly crashed into someone else.

"Head, watch it!" Killshot said, barely avoiding him.

"Sorry," Onslaught apolgized, and headed towards the command center quickly with Dead End, leaving Killshot behind at the Med-bay. Killshot look at the room, taking note of the fact that the medics were not working on anybody at the moment and that Shockwave was actually awake.

"So, I'm guessing your done with everybody else. Can you check me up now?"

"Yes, we can," Hook said. "Just let me ask a question. Have you any serious diseases, injuries, or surgeries before that I should be aware of?"

"Not that I know of," Killshot said, casually.

"Actually," Swindle said, "That's not true. The guy doesn't have a T-cog."

"He doesn't have a T-cog," Hook said, parroting Swindle's words. "Why does he not have a T-cog?" Killshot provided the answer.

"Um, probably because I'm a part of Triple M," Killshot said.

"Triple M? You mean the Militant Monoform Movement?" Hook asked.

"Yeah, well, technically I'm a part of it. Long, personnel story that I really don't want to get into." Killshot said. Hook looked at him with a sign of disgust.

"Why would I help someone like you?" Hook asked.

"Oh, don't start that shapism scrap and look at my leg," Killshot commended in an angry tone. Hook looked at him before answering.

"Fine. Scavenger, fetch my stuff. I'll fix his leg." Scavenger did as he said, getting Hook's stuff and helped him looked at Killshot leg. While that was going on, Swindle was having a conversation with Shockwave.

"So, Shocky. How have you been," Swindle asked, using his most informal tone possible.

"I am fine, Swindle. What is it that you want?" Shockwave asked.

"Just came to tell you that your lab is completely trashed and probably would take a long time to finish." Shockwave looked at him with a interested glance.

"And why are you informing me of this."

"I'd just came to tell you that someone manage to save the data from your computer," Swindle said, in a casual tone. Shockwave looked at him with a evil optic. If looks could cause harm, Swindle would've been stabbed, blown up, and dipped in acid. Who knows what Shockwave could do with two optics. "I wonder how much that information costs to you." Shockwave's eye looked more furious. Swindle looked at Shockwave as the two stared each other down, the only noise coming from Hook and Killshot's bickering ("Ow, son of a glitch." "Calm done. It didn't hurt that much." "You did that on purpose." "Maybe."). The stare at each other before Shockwave asked the question.

"What do you want?" Shockwave asked.

"A hundred thousand shaxies, for starters. We'll work our way up from there." Shockwave looked at him with a evil looked.

"I don't have that much money, Swindle. Is there another way to get my information back?" Swindle thought that through. If Shockwave couldn't pay him, then what else could he helped him with.

Swindle had a idea.

"Here's a idea. Megatron gave me a assignment to hunt down this guy who's majorly ticked him off, along with Starscream, and I figure maybe you could help me out." Shockwave thought that through. Go on a mission away from Cybertron? That was definitely something he didn't want to do.

"What if you're lying to me?" Shockwave's asked.

"Shocky, I didn't. Trust me," Swindle said in best salescon voice. "I erased that data before I left and the only way to get it is with my head. Which reminds me, if you're going on this trip, no cortical patch unless we keep it in a area only I can access; don't want you sifting through my head." Shockwave thought this through. Swindle, as much as he hated him at this moment, had him by the bearings. "You know, we're probably making a lot stops while tracking this guys down. You could probably get some data along with your current one. That could help out with whatever you researching." Swindle was really convincing right now. It's was true though. Studying other planets could help him revive Cybertron, along with helping the Decepticon cause.

"If I say no?" Shockwave asked.

"Then I'm afraid this information will be completely useless to me and I will delete from the memory banks, completely destroying any chance you have of seeing that data again." Swindle said, in the most casual tone possible, all with a smile on his face. Shockwave really wanted to shoot that smug grin. Truth was, Swindle forgot to delete the data at the base, but Shockwave didn't need to know that. "Come on. It's a double win scenario. You get your information back and more data to go along with it, and I get reliable help to take this guy down. I'll even make you Second-in-command of the ship along with a lab. Come on, I don't think I've ever given a deal as good as this before." Swindle said.

Shockwave thought this through. When the mission was done, he would get a whole new set of information from this, along with his old one. Swindle was even offering him a lab on the ship. If you know Swindle, you would realize that a deal like that doesn't happen often. Shockwave thought this through thoroughly before sticking out his hand. "I accept." Swindle look at his hand before shaking it.

"Pleasure doing business with you."


	23. Complex Terms PT 2

Dead End looked on at the conversation between Onslaught and Megatron with a uninterested look. Megatron was please at the fact that Shockwave was alright, but was glaring at Starscream for his incompetence. Starscream wasn't paying attention to him or to the conversation. He must've still been mad over Thundercracker's demise. Onslaught still had his calm face as he talk to Megatron, which was good, considering most people who talk to Megatron at least looked nervous. Honestly, the whole conversation was going good.

Than Swindle walked in…

"Hey lord Megatron," Swindle said, in his ever so casual tone, "got some news for you."

"What?" Megatron asked in his ever so impatient tone.

"Shockwave is coming with me on my hunt for the people who killed Thundercracker," Swindle said, completely calm and casual. Megatron, on the other hand, looked surprise.

"And just how did you manage to convince Shockwave to go with you? Shockwave hasn't left Cybertron even after it died 70 million years ago."

"Simple. I convince that the best way to find solutions to returning Cybertron to its normal state was to look at other planets. Since it's really hard to explore other planets from a dead world, I convince him that flying with me would be the best way to find a solution for Cybertron," Swindle said, saying a mouth full. Megatron looked at him oddly before returning to his normal scowling visage.

"Alright, you gave why Shockwave would go with you, but why do you want him? I highly doubt you're doing this out of the bottom of your spark," Megatron asked.

"Simple. I need a scientist, just in case I need one for my trip. You never know what you're going to fine so I tried to prepare myself for everything." Swindle explained.

"Alright. You made your point. When exactly are you leaving for your mission?" Megatron asked.

"Probably tomorrow. I've got to make room in my ship for everyone else before we leave and make a place good enough for a lab for Shockwave. Which reminds me, Onslaught, can I use some of your Vehicons? I need them to move stuff around on the ship." Swindle asked.

"Sure. Dead End will you to the lounge area where they're probably some resting."

"You have a lounge?" Swindle asked.

"It's to increase morale around here." And to slack off and waste the day away if things got boring. "Dead End, lead Swindle to the lounge." Dead End merely nodded his head and signal to Swindle to follow him. Swindle followed him out of the room without a word, leaving Onslaught with Megatron.

The two walk through the hallway silently. Swindle really didn't want to talk with a guy who was mostly pessimistic and Dead End was brooding to himself. The two were just fine to leave it at silence, so they just strolled through the hallways.

Unfortunately for them, they run into Misfire.

"Hey, Dead End! Who's that?" Misfire yelled, walking towards them. Dead End and Swindle kept walking.

"This is Swindle. He's the captain of the ship we're flying on," Dead End said.

"Oh, really?" Misfire said, catching up to them. Swindle responded to him.

"Yes, really. It's outside if you want to see it, but no going inside until we leave unless I'm with you."

"Why?"

"Because, knowing you, you'll find some way to damage it and hurt the resale value of it. You know what? Don't even carry a gun in shooting distance of the ship, either. I don't want to buff out any scorch marks on it."

"Oh, okay," Misfire said, keeping quiet for a little bit. "Said," now he was speaking again, "where are you guys going."

"To the lounge," Dead End answered. Misfire momentarily stopped in step before walking again.

"We have a lounge?" Misfire asked.

"That's what I said," Swindle said.

"Yes, we have a lounge," Dead End answer. "If you look at the map we put into your berthing room, you would know that."

"We have a map, too?" Misfire asked yet another question.

"Yes," Dead End said, sounding exhausted. Talking to Misfire was frustrating. "If you weren't hop up all drugs on the time, you would know that."

"You should try some, Deady. You're always walking around with either a sad face or a bored face. Come on, I've got things that will liven you up a bit."

"No," Dead End replied swiftly.

"Come on. You need some. I'll even make some myself," Misfire said, really wanting to make Dead End happy. Before Dead End could reply, Swindle asked a question.

"You can make drugs?" Swindle asked. That was very interesting to him.

"Yeah, and not just the illegal stuff. I can also make stuff like painkillers and sedatives. You know, medicine." Look like Misfire could be useful for something.

"Where did you find the time to learn how to make them?" Swindle asked.

"Mixmaster, taught me. His reason was, and I quote, 'so you will stop bothering me about the next hit.'"

"Well than, Misfire. I got a idea. I got a lab on the ship that you could use." Swindle said.

"Really? Nice."

"But, there's a catch."

"Aw, come on," Misfire groaned, sounding like a child.

"I only have one lab on the ship…"

"And, so what. You don't have any more scientist on the ship, right?"

"You haven't heard? Shockwave coming on the trip and you're going to have to share the lab with him.

"What, really? Oh, slag me."

"I hate to interrupt," Dead End said, "but we're at the lounge." Turns out, he was correct. The door was open which let them look into the blue room. The room was well lit and several of the Vehicons were lounging about, idly talking to each other. The group head to a group of 8 Vehicons. Dead End opened up the conversation.

"Excuse me; I need all of you to come with us. We're organizing a ship and we're going to need a extra set of hands to move stuff around." The Vehicons look at each other before they all got up. With that, they all walked to the exit, except Misfire.

"Hey, Misfire. You're coming," Swindle asked.

"Nah, I'm think I'm just going to stay here," Misfire said in a depressing tone.

"Alright," Swindle said, and walked out of the room along with Dead End and the Vehicons. Misfire stood still, thinking about working in the same lab with Shockwave. He's heard rumors about him. Rumors that would make any Con leak a little. Misfire took all this in bravely and said a single phrase that tell how he was.

"I'm screw."


	24. Complex Terms PT 3

Scavenger looked around the room. Shockwave was laying on his berth, looking around the room. Killshot was also laying on his berth, his wound patch up, looking at Shockwave. Flatline was on a computer, looking at data. Hook and Scalpel were out of the room, somewhere. Skywarp was still on his berth, laying still.

It was pretty boring.

He looked at Killshot, who was observing Shockwave, who was observing Flatline. Killshot was obviously tense around Shockwave. He had a distinctive look on his face that said, "Don't get near me." He could also slightly hear music from his headphones. It sounded erratic.

Shockwave was looking at Flatline. Scavenger couldn't tell what he was thinking, due to the fact that, aside from a single, red eye, he had no face. Shockwave switch his attention to Killshot, which cause his face to scrunch up. Silent warfare was happening between them. One that Shockwave didn't notice as his attention went to Flatline. Obviously, Shockwave didn't care about him.

"Look at the two idiots." Scavenger looked at the person that said that, Skywarp's inert form. "The two are going to get along real well," Skywarp's form said, his mouth not moving, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"I don't think so," Scavenger replied back, completely missing the sarcasm.

"You're not very bright, are you?" Skywarp said, still not moving.

"I'm good enough to be a medical assistant…"

"For someone who only tolerates you," Skywarp said, his voice sounding a little deep.

"Well, me and him don't get along, but we respect each other." Scavenger said, voice getting tense.

"You're sure?"

"Yes," Scavenger answer quickly. Perhaps a little too quickly.

"Then you're an idiot. A very pathetic idiot. Or lying. You could be lying."

"I'm not lying!" Scavenger yelled, before quickly shutting his mouth. He looked around him. Flatline looked away from his work to briefly look at him before turning back, Shockwave was looking at him with what a interested glance (at least it looked interested. Not a whole lot you can do with one eye.), and Killshot looked at him with a bewilder expression. Scavenger looked at them before saying, "I'm not lying about, doing nothing. I'm just looking over Skywarp," ending it with a nervous chuckle. The two still looked at him.

"Don't mind him," Flatline said, still on the computer, a little bored. "He does this sometimes. Best to just ignored him and carry on with sulking about doing nothing." Killshot and Shockwave looked at Scavenger for a little longer before turning their attention to each other, engaging in silent conversation (or silent death threats, if Killshot's glares were anything to go by) and leaving Scavenger all by his pathetic self. Scavenger mentally gave Flatline a thank you before looking at Skywarp's still inert form.

"You should really keep your voice down," Skywarp's form said.

"Screw you," Scavenger whispered, a tiny bit of venom creeping into his voice.

"Aw, someone's a little upset."

"Shut up."

"You know, you didn't deny the part about being a pathetic idiot."

"You're nothing, but a lying jerk."

"Oh, come on, is that the best insult you can come up with," Skywarp nonmoving form said, sounding amuse. "I've heard better insults from pacifists."

"Yeah, well, I'm not good at insults."

"Or anything, really. Unless you count 'being useless' as a skill."

"You're the worst person imaginable."

"I try." Scavenger said nothing in return to that. It was completely true. "Oh, come on. Talk to me. Everyone else doesn't talk to you, so come on. Even though I ridicule you on everything you do, I'm still the only one that talks to you on a regular basis." Well, that was kind of true.

"Yeah, I'm not really that good with making friends, but that may change on this mission we're going on. I might have the chance to make friends with some of them on the mission."

"Yeah, well two of them are standing in the room with you", he said, indicating Killshot and Shockwave, who were still looking at each other. Scavenger looked at them, then back to Skywarp's form.

"Well, I probably won't make friends with them, but I could strengthen my bond with Hook," Scavenger said, hope in his voice seeping through.

"Highly doubt that, which leads me to a question that I've already ask several times before. Why do you still follow that complete egocentric bastard. And don't walk around it this time. I want to hear the truth." Scavenger had been thinking that question over for a while. In truth he really still didn't know. "You don't know, do you?" Slaggit! He always had the ability to read what was going through his mind.

"No, I really don't know."

"Guess I should've figure that out before now. You're a complete idiot who can't make decisions." Scavenger looked at the stilled seeker form. He really hated this voice.

"You ask me why I should follow Hook, so tell me, why should I still listen you?"

"I already told you, idiot. It's because no one else will."

"Well then, I guess I'd better make some friends, because you suck." With that done, he turn around, leaving his back and his shovel-tail towards Skywarp's form.

"Come on, Scav, look at me. We're friends, honestly," the voice coax, trying to get Scavenger back on his good side. It didn't work, as Scavenger still had his back towards him. "Look, this isn't the first time you've done this and it definitely won't be the last. We both know how this will end: With you coming back to me and begging me to be your friend. So please, spare me the trouble and stop acting like such a brat. It makes things easier." The voice finished, his speech done.

Scavenger still didn't turn back towards the voice. Killshot and Shockwave looked up from their staring towards Scavenger, standing still with his back to Skywarp nonmoving body, crossing his body in a pout manner. "So," the voice asked, "will you talk to me." The voice waited patiently for his answer.

He got one.

Scavenger turn around suddenly and punch Skywarp still form in the face. And then did again. And again. And again. Flatline intervene, having to actually drag Scavenger away from Skywarp's body to prevent him from hurting him anymore than he already is. "Scavenger! What's wrong with you?!" Flatline asked. Killshot too got involve, getting up from his berth and helping Flatline subdue Scavenger, all the while shouting curses. Eventually, Scavenger calm down and Flatline and Killshot let go of him, but kept watched, waiting to see if Scavenger would go over the deep end again.

"Scavenger, I have a question," Killshot began, "have you ever consider talking to a therapist, because you are straight up crazy." Flatline gave him a killing gaze before addressing Scavenger in a nicer way.

"Scavenger, I agree with this con, whoever he is." Flatline said resulting a look from Killshot. "I recommend that you see Hook about your violent tendencies and your mental health. That was definitely unlike you.

"I'm fine. I'm just having a bad day," Scavenger said.

"It's about to get worse," said a voice. All three looked to see Skywarp getting off the table, energon dripping from his face. He looked pissed. "You're about to feel a lot of pain."

Skywarp lunged off the table towards Scavenger.


	25. Carried Away PT 1

"…and that's why I don't do that kind of swag," Swindle said to Dead End, walking down the hallway of the base. They had just finish moving the items around in Swindle's ship to accommodate for more passenger and the Vehicons had all head back to the lounge to head back to the lounge while Dead End and Swindle were heading towards the command room to talk to Onslaught. Dead End looked like he was considering suicide a bit more seriously than usual, while Swindle had on his usual slag-eating grin.

"So, you don't give anything away for free, but you will sell illegal things," Dead End said, without a ounce of care in his voice, like he already knew this.

"Of course. All the time. If I don't, than someone else will and make money off of that. I got to cover all my angles."

"Is there anything you won't do?" Dead End asked. If he were to guess, probably not.

"Of course I do. Example, slave trading. Definitely something I don't do," Swindle said, a bit of hatred in his voice.

"May I ask why? It's definitely something I see you doing," Dead End said, actually interested in why he doesn't do slave trading (at least he sounded interested). This is a con that's willing to sell body parts that he got from dead people to make a profit. What was it about slave trading that was too low for him?

""I got several reasons to hate it. First, actually keeping the person alive costs money and resources. That can really eat up into my profits. Secondly, the traders themselves are completely deplorable people. They give honest businessmech like myself a bad name." Dead End scoffed at that one. "Third, and most importantly, it goes against my morals."

"It does?" Dead End asked, a little surprise. Since when did Swindle had morals?

"Yeah. I may be a murderer, arms dealer, etc. but I'm not a fan of slavery or anything like that. Back before the war started, I was against the whole caste system we had, much to the disappointment of my creator. He always disapproved of it."

"Why did he oppose you?"

"Simple. He was a senator." Oh. Dead End looked at him a bit oddly. Swindle took notice. "He was a major aft. Always went on tirades about the fact that the upper caste was superior and that the lower caste were meant to be used," Swindle said, ending his explanation.

"I'm guessing he's dead now," Dead End said.

"I don't know. Last time I saw him, I was sorta stealing his ship. He might be alive, although I doubt it. More than likely, he got ripped apart by another con like most of them did." Swindle said, without a bit of sadness in his voice.

"So, I'm guessing that his ship out there," He said, indicating Swindle's ship.

"Yep, the guy had a big enough ego to named it after himself. 'The Merchant.' What a prick. Good ship though, especially with all the upgrades. It's definitely the best thing I've ever gotten from him." Swindle said, a bit of happiness in his voice. He must really like that ship. He looked back at Dead End. "What about you?"

"Huh?" Dead End said, a little surprised.

"What about you? What brought you into the con you are now. A con only capable of the emotions of sadness and not-caring." Swindle asked.

"Why?"

"Give and take. You get information about me, I get information about you," Swindle explained. He did have a point, Dead End agreed. He got information about him, he might as well get information about him.

"Alright. I was created upper-middle-class to a couple of metallurgists in Ibex."

"Ibex? You mean the racing capital of Cybertron?" Swindle asked.

"Yes. That's the one. While there, I didn't make many friends. Most of the time, I was studying poetry at the local poetry club."

"A fan of poetry."

"Not as much as I used to be, but yes, I am a fan. As I was saying, I kept moistly to myself by hanging out at the poetry club. The only person from Ibex that I have semi-regular conversations with is Drag Strip."

"Drag Strip? Isn't he one of the Stunticon like you."

"Yes, he is. Me and him were the only one who knew each other before the Stunticons was form. Of course, we were very different. Drag Strip had one thing on his mind: winning. If he didn't win, he was bound to make a scene. Anyway, my creators were a fickle bunch and wanted me to solely study metallurgy. Back then, I was a disrespectful piece of slag who really didn't give a damn what my creators had to say. They ended up kicking me out."

"Ouch. What happen after that?"

"I hung out at the poetry club for a little while. After a little while, Drag Strip enter with a date. I later learn that he went to the poetry club with her on a dare form one of his friends. He had to get her in the berth with her before the day ended."

"How did that go?"

"Bad. She left during the middle of the date, calling him all kinds of nasty thing. Just for good measures, she stabbed him straight in the bearings with a knife."

"That must've been painful," Swindle said, with a look that had a look of sympathy. A mech should never be stabbed in the bearings.

"It was. I decided to help him out. At the time, we kind of knew each other, so I figure that if I help him, he would help me."

"And the fact that he was stabbed in the bearings."

"That too. I took him to the nearest hospital and had the doctors patch him up. Drag Strip thanked me by letting me stay at his place."

"Just like that?"

"Well, I had to appeal to his ego a little bit and explain the situation, but yeah, just like that."

"Well, I guess that's a good thing… hey, where in the pit are all the Vehicon running?" Swindle asked. Dead End looked up at them. A group of about 10 Vehicons were all running the opposite towards them. "Hey, idiots, stop!" Swindle yelled. The herd paid no attention to him and kept running, all of them pushing Swindle Dead End out of the way and onto the floor aalong with a sole Vehicon that trip. When the group was gone, Swindle, Dead End, and the Vehicon got up off the ground. "Well, there goes some of my retail value," Swindle said, examining the scratches on his body.

"Mine as well and I just buff myself too," Dead End said.

"You buff yourself?"

"Yes"

"Why?"

"I prefer to look as good s possible when I died, thank you."

"Wow, I didn't know you were vain too." Swindle looked at the Vehicon, whose head was still ringing from the fall. "Hey, you. Why were you guys running?" The Vehicon (labeled TI-22) looked at him and answered.

"Skywarp. He woke up and just started fighting with Scavenger in the med-lab. The two are really going at it."

"Skywarp is already up?" Dead End said.

"Yeah, and I don't know about you, but I'm getting out of here. I'm too insignificant to die!" With that, TI-22 ran away from the duo, transmission fluid running down his leg, probably to die a pointless death later on.

"Why is Skywarp already up?" Dead End asked out loud.

"And why is he beating the slag out of Scavenger?"Swindle asked.

"We better make sure that they don't kill each other, if they haven't already. Come on," Dead End said, non-caring, walking in an even pace towards the med-lab. Swindle stare for a little bit before shrugging his shoulders and following along.

"You've really lack the urge to care about anything except your paint job, have you?" Swindle asked.

"Probably," Dead End said, bored.

"So, what do you think happen in the med-lab."

"I don't know and we won't know until we get there, so asking those questions are pointless."

"Alright, alright." Swindle stayed quiet… for about 10 seconds. "So, what happen between you and Drag Strip?"

"Nothing much. He was staying at his own place. His creators were both dead so the place had been left to him. He put me in a spared bedroom and told me to clean up after himself. Believe it or not, he's probably one of the cleanest cons around. His place was immaculate."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. Everything was in order and in place, although it lack a certain… personality. The place was more beige than these hallways," Dead End said, waving his hands around the hallway. The hallways were really beige, man. "So, me and him lived there with me reading stories and poetry and Drag Strip racing with his gang." They were nearing the med-lab, now.

"Gang?"

"Yes, a gang. They're two main gangs in Ibex: one led by Drag Strip and one led by a bot called Blurr. Simply saying the two hated each other was an understatement. The two gave each other death threats on a daily basis and both would beat the slag out of each other, resulting in more hospital visits for Drag Strip." Dead End stopped talking. They were here. The door opened silently and let them in to see the carnage.

"Wow, looked like we miss a really big fight," Swindle said. He was correct in his assessment to. The materials were stranded all over the rooms. Surgical equipment, broken glassware, various substances, etc. were laying about, with Flatline cleaning everything up, mumbling to himself. Shockwave was still laying on his berth, looking at the two newcomers.

"You don't know the half of it." Flatline said to them, sounding ticked. "Do you know how much all of this cost?" He said, indicating the substances and glassware spread about. The surgical tools, were left most intact.

"My guess, about 5,000 shanxies," Swindle said, quickly.

"Around that, yes." Flatline looked at him. "You have a good eye."

"Sort of comes with the job." He looked at Flatline. "So what happen between Scavenger and Skywarp?"

"Scavenger freak out and started beating Skywarp offline body for no reason. He just started punching him in the head until me and Killshot got him off. As we were scolding him, Skywarp just woke up, out of the blue, gave a pithy one-liner, and attacked him. We tried to stop him from causing anymore fighting, but in the middle of the struggle, he teleported him and Scavenger out of here. After that, Killshot decided to search for the two and left me here in the company of Shockwave," Flatline said, ending his explanation.

"Do you know where they go?" Dead End asked.

"I don't know. My guess, follow the carnage."

"Alright then, see you later Flatline."

"Yeah, whatever." With that, the two walk out of the room and back into the hallway.

"So, any idea where we should go?" Swindle asked.

"Not a single clue."

"Than what in the pit do we do to find them?" Luckily, that ended up answering itself very quickly. A certain vehicon ran down the hall nonstop, accidently running straight into… Swindle. "Son of a glitch!" Swindle yelled as they toppled onto the floor with the vehicon on top. The Vehicon got up immediately and tried to run, but Swindle wasn't having that. He quickly grabbed his ankle and tripped him back to the ground and immediately got on top of him and holding him down. While holding him down, Swindle looked at his number.

TI-22. Oh, great. This fragger again.

"Hey there again, idiot. How's it going? So, exactly where were you running from this time?" Swindle asked in a low toned. TI-22 responded exactly how any most would expect from him.

"The lounge! I don't know how they got there, but the lounge! Please let me go!" Swindle briefly consider threatening the poor vehicon a little longer, but decided against, letting the Vehicon go. The Vehicon gladly ran away, more transmission fluid running down his leg. Swindle looked at Dead End, who did absolutely except standing there.

"You could've help, you know," Swindle pointed out.

"You look like you were doing fine," Dead End replied., bored

"Well, because of that idiot, I now have fraggin transmission fluid all over me. Come on, let's head to the lounge and see if we can stop Scavenger and Skywarp from ripping the base apart. I don't want to have transmission fluid on me for nothing." Swindle ordered, heading off to the lounge. Dead End mearly shrug his shoulders and followed along.


	26. Carried Away PT 2

Misfire drank the fifth cube of high-grade. He was starting to get tipsy, but wasn't plaster yet. Primus know how the vehicon got high-grade, but he didn't care. He was just glad he got some. The vehicon didn't care either, as long as he paid for it. The price was a bit ridiculous (30 shanix a cube), but it was worth it. High-grade was the good stuff.

A lot of the vehicons around here were just talking to each other, gossiping about the latest event. Most of them were talking about the unexpected visitors. Some were mourning Thundercracker's death, some were talking about what they would buy from Swindle when they get a chance, and some were talking about how happy they were that Misfire was leaving.

The high-grade helped Misfire ignore the last part.

There were also entertainment, too. There was a television on every wall of the room and a couple hanging off the ceiling in the center. High quality, too. Television was still the primary form of watching entertainment, due to the fact that holovision was pretty expensive. A lot of it was Decepticon live morale videos, declaring themselves better the Autobots and explaining why. Some of it was BS, of course, but if it got the troops ready to kill any Autobots, than it didn't matter. Most of the videos were spoken in Megatron's voice, but every now and then, someone else would talk over the videos, usually Starscream (the slagger). Although, sometimes, Megatron's voice did sounded a little off.

Then again, you always hear them, never see them.

There was also some fights here, usually starting when a vehicon says something so blatently offensive, it gets another vehicon into a frenzy and attack the offender. Of course, some of it was just because they were bored and wanted to entertain themselves somehow. Sometimes they would expand into full on lounge fights (bar fights were so last millennium) that encompass the whole room. Unfortunately, the fights usually had fatalities and injuries, something that pissed off both Onslaught, for waste of troops, and the medics, for making them work more.

At least the blue room was good at hiding any spilled energon, whether it was spilled from cubes or bodies.

Misfire laid back in his chair, which lead to another point: the chairs were fragging confortable, whether they were flyers or not. They had to special order these from planet Nebulos, the most comfortable place to spend you retirement. Seriously, the chairs were so good. And so, Misfire laid back in his chair near the entrance, ignoring everybody, and drank the cube. Nothing could ruin today. Now, if only there was anybody intersesting to talk to.

"This sinkhole has a bar?" came a familiar voice. Misfire turned around a little slowly, the high-grade really getting to him. There was Killshot, looking around the area. He looked a little worst for wear, but couldn't hold back the smile on his face on the prospect of finding a bar.

"It's a looge…." Misfire coughed a little bit, trying to control himself. He was slurring his words. "Sorry, I meant a lounge. What's up?" he asked, keeping his mouth under control. Killshot looked at him with a look that said 'why me' and look around the area, looking for someone. Misfire also looked around the area, trying to figure out who he was looking for. When that fail, he decided to ask him. "Who you're looking for?"

"Scavenger and Skywarp," he answeded

"Skywarp's up. I thought he wasn't suppose to up until tomorrow."

"Yeah, well, you can thank Scavenger for that."

"Really? Slag. He must be really mad about Thundercracker. How did he wake up?"

"Yeah, he Scaveger punch Skywarp. In the face. Multiple times."

"Ouch! Why?"

"I really have no idea. I think he's probably insane. I heard him talking to himself before he punch him. Flatline said that wasn't unusual." A vehicon with transmission fluid leaking down his leg enter the room.

"It isn't." Killshot gave him a look. "Hey, I'm just saying. I've seen him talked to corpses before. So has Onslaught. It's not that much of a secret."

"Yeah, I wasn't here for that. Remember?"

"Oh, yeeeeaaaahhhhh. Forgot about that."

"Yeah. High-grade will do that to you. How much have you drank?"

"This," he drank the rest of the cube, "was the fifth cube." He laid the cube on the table. Killshot was impressed at that. Most mechs Misfire's size would be making sweet love to the ground by now. "So what happen after Skywarp woke up?"

"A fight happen between him and Scavenger. We tried to stop them, but Skywarp teleported them out of here before we could stop them."

"Ah, well, they're not here, as you can see. If they were, there would be a lounge fight by now."

"yeah, they're not here…" suddenly, a blue light appear above the two as Skywarp and Scavenger appear ad felled out of the together…. right on Misfire.

"Son of a glitch!" Misfire yelled, as he was crushed by the two fallers. At the same time, the vehicon that enter the room leak more transmission fluid and ran out of the room. They landed on top of Misfire, with the two breaking away from each other after they landed, with Scavenger still on top of Misfire and Skywarp rolled a little away from the two.

Killshot capitalize on the situation. He immediately ran up to Skywarp to restrain him. Skywarp was on the ground, backside up. He grabbed his arms and held them behind his back and avoiding the wings. Killshot expected at least of a little bit of a struggle, but instead felt nothing. Upon looking at Skywarp, he realized that he was offline.

Well now, that was easy.

"Ugh, can somebody help me get this guy off?" Killshot looked back at Misfire, who was struggling to get Scavenger off of him. Obviously, being drunk wasn't exactly helping him physically.

"Yeah, sure. Skywarp's offline right now. He isn't going to hurt anybody right now." Killshot walk over to Scavenger and Misfire. Scavenger had looked better. Energon was leaking out of his mouth and a gash on his head along with several dents on his body and he was offline too.. Killshot lifted him off of Misfire and set him up on a chair. He went back to see Misfire still wriggling on the ground. "So, are you going to get up?"

"I will once you get this guy off me." Wow, look like Killshot overestimate him. "You know, I think I like the floor. I'll just stay here for a little while, if you don't mind."

"Whatever."

"Great," Misfire said, as he went offline.

Well now, what to do now. Here he was with three offline Cons, and no idea what to do next. He looked around the area and notice something. There was energon dripping from the table. Looked like Scavenger hit his head pretty hard on the table as he fell down on Misfire.

The door opened behind him. He turn around to see Dead End and Swindle waking in. "Well now, look like you took care of him," Swindle said, indicating Skywarp's inert form.

"Wasn't me. He just teleported in here with Scavenger and was knock out when I checked him."

"That's fortunate," Swindle said as Dead End check on Misfire and Scavenger.

"What happen to these two?" he asked.

"Same thing happen to Scavenger. He was teleported here and knocked out when he hit his head on the table right here." He indicated the table where energon was dripping off of it. "As for Misfire, he couldn't hold his high-grade. Decided to take a nap on the floor."

"Well then, I guess that could've end worse." Swindle said.

"It did," said a voice behind him. Swindle turn around to see Onslaught, and he looked pissed.

"Hey Onslaught. What happen?" Swindle asked, his voiced a little tense.

"These two," he indicated Scavenger and Skywarp, "interrupted my conversation with Megatron and Starscream when they teleported into the room and beat each other up, so someone tell me right now what the slag happen!"


	27. Carried Away PT 3

An hour later, everyone was in the command room facing Megatron and Starscream looming forms on the TV screen, sans vehicons and a few individuals. Skywarp and Scavenger were still offline and couldn't report in, Scalpel was watching over them and making sure they wouldn't kill each when they woke up, Mixmaster wasn't involve in anything and didn't come, Shockwave wasn't involve either and was in the med-lab helping Scalpel watch over the two, and Misfire was too drunk to wake up, let alone report in front of Megatron. Mixmaster analyze Misfire's high-grade and found trace amounts of sedatives in there. All of that together would make for one really bad hangover when he woke up.

Onslaught was standing over everybody, watching them, with Dead End beside him, really not caring about anything going on right now. Swindle was slouch up on the wall, looking slightly worried. Killshot was also slouch up on the wall, really wishing this meeting would hurry up. Flatline was standing up and watching everybody with a scowl on him. Hook was similar, watching everybody with a scowl that imprinted itself into there very soul, if they were paying attention to him. Hook, being Scavenger senior, was here in place of him to explain Scavenger actions, despite the fact he wasn't there for any of it and they ruined his recharge sleep.

They had just finished the story of how this all happen. Megatron frown was there the whole conversation while Starscream looked furious. Apparently hearing that his sole living trinemate getting the slag beat out of him didn't amuse him. How surprising.

Once the explanation was over, Starscream decided to ask some questions. "Hook!" By screaming. "Why did Scavenger attack Skywarp?!"

"I don't know. Maybe there's something defective in his processor or something. Maybe he hates looking at someone who has a face like yours," hook responded casually. Starscream gave him a death glare.

"Watch your mouth or I'll come over there and kill you myself," he hissed in a dangerous tone.

"I highly doubt that. You're far too much of a coward." Cue more death glares from Starscream.

"How did Skywarp get offline again?" he asked in a more calm tone.

"He overexerted himself. That, and using a teleported requires a lot of energon. I'm surprise he didn't go offline after the first time he warp, considering his state."

"Will he be alright?" he asked, a bit of concern in his voice. He actually care about somebody besides himself. That surprised Hook.

"Yes, yes, he'll be fine. He just needs a good recharge and a lot of energon. By tomorrow, he should be up and annoying everybody again."

"How about that assistant of yours. Please tell me he's going to die."

"Nope. He's perfectly fine except for a gash on his head. He'll be up by tomorrow as well," he said, unable to keep the smugness out his voice.

"Well than, good for you," Starscream said, sounding a little sad. Sadist. "Is there anything more about Skywarp's condition you can tell me?"

"Not that I know of." Starscream looked happy about that. "Of course, something could happen to him in his sleep." Starscream didn't look happy about that. "Relax. I'm just kidding. He's perfectly fine." Starscream looked annoyed.

"I'm heading to recharge. Today has been a long day." He said, leaving the screen to his room, leaving Megatron by himself on the screen. It was an unwritten rule among the Decepticons: if you can annoy Starscream, do it. With Starscream gone, that left Megatron on the screen looking at everybody.

"Is there anything else that needs to be said?" he asked. Nobody spoke up. "Than everybody go recharge," everybody started to leave, "except Swindle." Swindle paused in his step and turn around. Everybody else left, leaving Swindle behind with Onslaught and Dead End. Swindle walked up to the screen with them, keeping his optics on Megatron. Megatron could be a bit… unpredictable in how he handles things.

"Yes, Lord Megatron?" he asked.

"Just giving some advice. I highly recommend taking Skywarp with you on this mission."

"Why?"

"Isn't it obvious. You don't have any flyers on the team, aside from Misfire and he isn't a very good soldier." Scrap. Swindle hadn't really thought of that. "Also, I want to keep Starscream under control. Having someone he trust on the mission will keep him from going over there."

"What about the conflict between him and Scavenger. I'm sure having the two on the same ship won't be good."

"It doesn't matter. You need Skywarp. Keep the two in check however you have too and make sure they don't kill each other." Swindle put a hand to his head and took a deep intake. He had no choice.

"Fine."

"Good. When are you taking off?"

"If all goes well and no one attempts to kill each other (unlikely), tomorrow morning."

"Alright then. This meeting is over." With that, the screen blackout and left Swindle there by himself, thinking. So now he needed to convince a psychopathic stair-pusher into helping in join his mission. Shouldn't be too hard. He would do anything to get revenge on the bastard who killed his trinemate.

Jeez. Today has been a stressful day.

"Swindle." He turned around to Onslaught. "You need to recharge. You look exhausted."

"Oh, really. Thanks Captain Obvious. Flying around a planet, flying to another planet, watching someone get blown into pieces, organizing a ship for leaving, and getting transmission fluid on my finish didn't look tiring, but now that you mention it, I'm very tire. Thanks for your insightful deduction, oh wise leader," Swindle ranted, sounding pissed.

"Sorry Swindle. I don't blame you for being mad. Most people don't have so many things happen to them in a short period of time, but I think today has been stressful for everybody. We all need a good recharge." Onslaught said, trying to contain the situation.

"Yeah, I will, I soon as I get the transmission fluid off of me," Swindle said, calming down "I'm sure you've had worse days than me, making sure the idiots here don't kill each other."

"I've had many a stressful days here, but they're not cause by them. They're were cause by the small amount of Autobots here."

"There's Autobots here."

"Yeah. That's what the metal fence and guard towers are for."

"Any major problems with them."

"I only have one major problem: Prowl."

"Oh slag."

"Yeah, you can say that again. Other than him, there really isn't a problem. He may be a worthy opponent, but I'm better than him. It's only a matter of time before he slips up and I can take him out."

"Well, good luck on that. I'm going to get rid of this slag and then I'm going to recharge. Good night, Ons."

"Good night, Swindle."


	28. Departure PT 1

The next day, Killshot was in the lounge, relaxing, sipping a nice cube of regular energon and listening to soft, atmospheric music. After all the stuff that happened yesterday, he needed it. Between gunfights, fistfights, and seekers, the day was a drag. But today's a new day and he decree that today would be relaxing day until Swindle made him leave (slagger).

There was also several vehicons in the room, most of them gossiping. Killshot wondered if they had anything better to do besides gossiping. Of course, one of them was doing something different. He was selling high-grade, medium-grade, and low-grade to the Vehicons. Killshot briefly wondered how did one get high-grade, before forgetting about it. Today was relaxing day, not thinking hard day.

The door opened behind, prompting him to move his head ever so slightly to see who it was: Skywarp, looking decidedly more puple today. Must've been repainted. So, psycho seeker number one decided to come relax today. Or start a fight. He could be here for that too.

Skywarp looked around the room until he settled his optics on Killshot. He walked over to Killshot. Killshot mentally groaned to himself. He already had to deal with one insane seeker, he didn't want to have to deal with another. At least he wasn't going on the mission with him.

"I'm going on the mission with you." Fragging Primus.

"R-r-really?" Killshot stuttered.

"Yeah. Swindle told me he had direct orders from Megatron that I should be on this mission, although I don't have a problem with it. You're going after the slagger who killed Thundercracker, right?"

"Yeah, but why are you on this mission? Besides personal vengeance, of course."

"According to Swindle, he needed more flyers. The only other flyer was Misfire and I've heard enough about him to know that he sucks. I mean he really sucks." Skywarp took a seat next to Killshot. "So, why are you here?"

"Huh?" Killshot asked.

"I say, why are you here. Are you great friends with Swindle or something?"

"Ah! Oh, that's hilarious," Killshot laughed. "I'm here because I'm Swindle bodyguard. Not because I'm friends with him or anything like that. I can barely stand him in the first place."

"Really?"

"Yeah. If I had to label the greediest individual in the universe, I would said Swindle, without question. From what I've seen, he would do anything to make money. Drugs, arms dealing, information dealing, etc, you get it. I've seen him do just about everything for money."

"Then why do you keep on working with him?"

"Do you know how useful it is working for a arms dealer. The guy pays me well and I get a slight discount at the store. A very slight discount, but a discount nonetheless." Killshot gave Skywarp a looked. "So, how were you when you first woke up?" he asked.

"Angry. Very angry. I really wanted to smash that slagger, Scavenger, face in, but he wasn't around. Instead, that black medic, Flatline, was there. He gave me a list of things to not do while for a couple of days. He wouldn't tell me where that slagger was. Kinda wanted to break his head open at that." Skywarp remain silent at that.

"So, I'm guessing your mourning Thundercracker, right?" Killshot asked.

"Yeah, but I gotta keep my attention off him. I concentrated fully on killing that slagger who killed him, whoever he is. I'm going to rip out spark and force feed it to him," he hissed in a malevolent tone, holding his left arm out in front of him and clenching it tightly. It's at that moment that Killshot noticed something different about his arm: it was painted a deep shade of blue, sorta liked Thundercracker's….

Oh. Best to not ask questions about that.

At that moment, the door opened, letting in Swindle and Misfire. Why were the two together? "You're sure he's here?" Swindle asked, and, Killshot had noticed, still had Transmission fluid on his legs. Jeez, you think he would have the time to get that crap off him. Killshot also noticed that he was holding his Scatter Blaster in his hand instead of over his arm. He must be mad at somebody.

"Yeah, he's right over there," Misfire said, pointing his arm to the vehicon selling the grades and clenching his other hand over his head. He must be holding back a serious hangover. He left Swindle and took a chair next to Skywarp, while Swindle headed off towards the vehicon. Judging by the fact that he was walking without the smug smile he usually has, good things were not going to happen.

"Uh, what's up with Swindle?" Killshot asked Misfire in hushed tones.

"Quit talking so loud. You're giving me headaches," Misfire said before composing himself. "He think that one of the vehicons stole some of his high-grade from him while he was organizing the ships."

"Oh, scrap."

"What?"

"First rule in regards to Swindle, don't steal from him unless you've got a death wish."

Everyone looked at Swindle. It looked like he was engaged in a conversation with the vehicon (label Pb-82). The vehicon looked nervous, wringing his hand and shaking his head a little too much. The two continue the conversation for a little while. Suddenly, Swindle brought his gun up and aim it at the vehicon's face….

BANG

The shot rip through his head, obliterating his head. The headless corpse topple to the ground in a heap. Swindle walked up to the corpse and unloaded another shot into his chest, right where the spark chamber was, caving the chest in on itself. With that done, he grabbed the grades stuffed them in his chest compartment before walking over to the group hanging by the table. "Be ready. We're leaving in a megacycle," he informed them, before walking out of the room.

"Well, who's going to clean up the body?" Killshot asked the room.


	29. Departure PT 2

Scavenger was in Mixmaster's room with him and Hook, nursing a headache. It was not because of that voice that annoyed him so much, it was not because of Skywarp bashing his head in, and it was not because of that gash he got from hitting that table.

It was because of Hook berating him. Loudly.

"Do you know how idiotic that was?! Yeah, Skywarp is a aft, but still, he is infinitely better than you in combat! Starting a fight with him was asking for trouble."

"He was still offline when I punched him. I didn't mean to start a fight," Scavenger explained.

"Oh, so you punch him while he was offline? Yes, that's definitely better. Punch a helpless person who had just watch his trinemate die and had been seriously injure in the same explosion that killed his trinemate!" Hook exclaimed sarcastically.

"Wait, what!? What do you mean by that!?" Scavenger asked. He didn't hear about that part.

"Oh, didn't you. Onslaught announced to all the medics. Oh, wait. I forgot. You were busy chatting up with the corpses in the morgue. Since you weren't there, allowed me to explained: Thundercracker got blown to smithereens by the same bomb that hit Skywarp. Unfortunately for him, he didn't end up as lucky as Skywarp. He was completely rip apart by the bomb, cutting him apart into several pieces," Hook said, ending his explanation, leaving Scavenger to think that over. Scavenger, almost immediately, replied.

"I'd fragged up, big time."

"Wouldn't be the first time," Hook said venomously.

"What can I do? I mean, I just can't walk up to him and apologize. He'll rip me apart!"

"We'll figure something out, later. We got a mission and Skywarp's not coming with us, so you'll be fine."

"Are you two done?" Mixmaster asked. The two looked at him before Hook answered.

"Yes, I think we are."

"Good, because you two are annoying." They both didn't look too amused by that statement. "Look, this is a mission against a dangerous individual. You two need to work together instead of constantly fighting. Well, mostly Hook needs to stop fighting." Hook continued to look not amused.

"I don't need advice from a junkie. I got everything under control." Hook said, poking at Mixmaster's addiction problems. It was Mixmaster turn to be not amused.

"Hey, I've been trying to quit."

"But you always crawl back to it." Hook said, lashing out.

"It's not my fault!"

"Yes it is!"

"Both of you shut up!" Scavenger yelled at them. Both of them looked at Scavenger, surprised. Scavenger wasn't one to get angry. "Honestly, when did we get like this."

"I can name one specific person responsible," Mixmaster said, looking at Hook. Hook, obviously getting what he was implying, barked back.

"It wasn't my fault. It was Scrapper's fault. If he had just step down, this wouldn't had happen."

"He didn't need to step down. You just got a ego that's too hard to please."

Scavenger had enough of the two. He got off the bed and out the doorway, without the two noticing, right into Swindle. "Oh, hey Swindle," Scavenger said, timidly.

"Scavenger, great. I'd been wondering where you were. I'm guessing one of the voices in the room arguing is Hook, right."

"Yeah, Hook and Mixmaster."

"I'd tried looking for you in the Med-lab, accidentally ran into Flatline's personal testing room." Swindle shiver at that. "Don't go in there. That room easily cracks the top 20 creepiest places I've been too. Maybe even the top 10. Didn't know protoforms could be experimented on like that. Anyway, report to the ship. We should be leaving in half a megacycle. Dead End and Shockwave are already on the ship and the others should be there soon I'll go inform Hook for you."

"Yeah, that be fine."

"Oh, I don't know if you be inform yet, but Skywarp's coming on the mission." Scavenger's spark sink at that comment.

"R-r-really?" he barely managed to stutter out. The seeker whose face he beat in was going on the mission with him?

"Yep." Primus really hated him. "Look, I know you two have some problems with each other, but I'm sure we can leave that behind us, right?" Swindle asked.

"Maybe," Scavenger replied, really thinking that Skywarp was going to tear him apart. Swindle, for his part, could easily see he was lying.

"Hey, don't worry. I gave him specific orders not to attack you." Swindle said, lying without changing a tune.

"Really?"

"Yes, but I advise not going near him, all the same. Skywarp has a history for disobeying orders." Swindle said. Scavenger silently thought that through.

"Yeah, I guess I should that. Thanks for that."

"You're welcome." Swindle said. Sounds of violence erupted from the other room. Sounded like Hook and Mixmaster came to blows. "Great, just what I needed. Head to the ship, I'll keep your gestalt from killing each other and get Hook to the ship."

"Alright," Scavenger said, walking away from the room, accidentally bumping onto Misfire along the way.

"Hey, watch it!" Misfire yelled.

"Sorry," Scavenger replied and went on his way, leaving Misfire. Misfire looked at the constructicon before heading towards Mixmaster's where Swindle was just about to enter. Before entering, Swindle noticed Misfire.

"What are you here for?" Swindle asked.

"I came to talk to Mixmaster before we left."

"Yeah, well he's a bit busy at the moment."

"Is he?"

"He and Hook got in a fight. I'm about to break it up. Want to help?"

"They're fighting again?"

"This isn't the first?"

"Not by a long shot. Alright I'll help." Misfire said. Swindle nodded his head before opening the door to see how the fight was turning out. Right now, it wasn't looking good for Hook. Mixmaster was using his larger build to keep Hook back and grapple him when he could. Right now, Mixmaster had Hook and the ground with his arms behind the back and his foot on his back, keeping him secure. Hook was squirming under his grasp, trying to get out. Look like there won't be much intervention involve. "This is how they usually end up," Misfire quip.

"Well, I was expecting something much worse," Swindle said. "Mixmaster completely curb-stomp him."

"Will you two help me get this brute off me!?" Hook shouted at them. The two looked at each other.

"Mixmaster," Swindle began "as entertaining as this is, could you let him go. We need him." Mixmaster looked at the two before letting go. Hook immediately got up and walked away, staring daggers at Mixmaster. He approach Swindle and asked a question.

"What do you need?" he asked.

"We're about to leave. I need you to head to the ship and get ready."

"Alright," Hook said, before walking past the two and towards the ship. Swindle looked at him go before saying to Misfire:

"Make this talk quick, alright."

"You got it," Misfire said. Swindle nod his head and head off in the same direction as Hook, leaving Misfire and Mixmaster alone. "So, you and Hook got at it again," Misfire said, walking towards Mixmaster.

"Yeah. Don't worry. Hook didn't even scratch my paint job."

"Yeah. In a one-on-one fist fight, he really not that good. Especially compare to me," he said pumping his arm out in a embarrassing way.

"Yes, you are truly an imposing figure in close-combat. Now tell me: what do you want? "

"I just came to say good-bye and maybe shared one last hit with you." Mixmaster sigh at that sentence.

"Sorry, Misfire. I'm going to have to refuse. I've been trying to quit."

"Yeah, where's the stuff…. Say that again. I don't think I heard you correctly."

"I'm quitting, or at least I'm trying. Been clean for the last couple of deca-cycles. Sorry."

"Ah…" Misfire was silent at that. HE hadn't talk to Mixmaster in a while, so he really had no idea about this. "Why?" he asked.

"I've spent nearly this whole war on drugs. Now that we're nearing the end of this war, I thought I could try and change some bad habits."

"Yeah, okay, but why are stopping this good stuff we got going on?"

"Scrapper won't take me back until I stop taking this stuff. Once I get clean and join Scrapper, I figure that Hook will join up with us and we can be together again. I hope he'll listen to the majority instead of satisfying his ego."

"Ah, well, that sucks."

"Sorry, Misfire, but the Constructicons have got to be whole again. Being separated, well…. Let's just say it hasn't been good on the mind. You've seen what's happen to Scavenger, right?"

"Yeah, I've had."

"I'm doing this for the suck of the group, not for myself. I need to stop self-indulging myself and help the others. Do you understand?" Misfire stared at him mutely before answering.

"Yeah, I understand," he said, quietly.

"Good, than can you do me a favor?"

"What?" Mixmaster walk over to a corner of a room and took a big box. He walk over and hand it to Misfire. Compare to him, it was about half the size of his chest.

"That's the rest of the drugs I have, mostly syk. Do whatever you want to it. I don't care whether you use it or dispose of it, just as long as it's gone."

"You got it, Mix."

"Thank you, Misfire. Now, I believe you have a ship to get to."

"Oh, frag. You're right. Gotta go. Good luck with things here."

"Good luck to you too." Misfire walked out of the purple room into the beige hallways, heading down the same path the others went. While walking through the hallways, he silently considered what to do with the drugs. It didn't take long for him to decide what to do with them.

Find a nice room and use those babies.


	30. Departure PT 3

On the bridge of the ship, Dead End and Shockwave were there, Dead End looking at the supply manifest and Shockwave looking at the files on the people coming on the mission for everybody except Swindle, who manage to have enough money to keep him from getting the file from Onslaught and even Megatron. Killshot's was from Swindle, Skywarp from Megatron and Starscream, and everybody else's from Onslaught.

Killshot, born in the assassin den of Telos, was well-known for the fact that he had the second-highest body of the snipers in the Decepticon ranks, losing to Blast Off. He was also well-known for being a bad loser. First thing he did when he heard that Blast Off beat him was to get involved in a massive brawl with twenty other vehicons. Said vehicons beat his aft due to overwhelming numbers. A good markscon, he is. A good fighter, he is not. He's supposedly gotten better about keeping bruise egos in check.

There's also the fact that he was a member of triple-M (Miltant Monoform Movement), a group known for not using T-cogs. The lack of a vehicle form will seriously hinder his mobility on the field. Shockwave wonder why one's whose best form of defense was speed would sacrifice his fastest form. The file doesn't specified why, just that he doesn't have one. Of course, he was still alive, which meant he knew how to take care of himself, vehicle form or no vehicle form.

Next, he looked at Skywarp. According to the reports, he was from Helex, a city populated mostly by the lower caste. The most remarkable thing about him was the teleporter that he was created with. Although not as book-smart as many others, he knows how to use the teleporter in his advantage in battles and his commanding officers knew how to use him in battle. Of course, the bad thing about the teleporter was that it used more energon than most things, require Skywarp to have more energon than most cons.

What do you know, here comes Killshot and Skywarp right now. "What's up?" Killshot asked Dead End . Dead End merely gave them an aside glance before answering back.

"Nothing important except for Skywarp's room. I want you to take him there. He's right across from you."

"Alright. Come on, Warp." Killshot and Skywarp left the bridge, leaving the two by themselves again. Shockwave looked at the next file.

Hook was created in Vos and serve as the second-in-command of the Constructicons and his vehicle form was a crane. However, he wanted to be the leader of the Constructicons and take control of it from the current leader Scrapper. However, unlike most people (like Starscream), Hook wanted to take it politically, by convincing everybody he would be a better leader. He got Scavenger and Mixmaster to back him up, but not Long Haul and Bonecrusher. What happen next, was pretty messy.

Scavenger was Hook medical's assistant and was also created in Vos. He's the youngest of them, being at least a million years younger than them and transform into a excavator, which explains why he has that weird shovel-tail. He has some serious self-esteem issue and reportedly has no friends among the Decepticons. He sided with Hook on the leader issue, presumably because Hook was his boss.

The two and the rest of the Constructicons were also voted the most fashionably challenge gestalt group. Apparently, purple and green were not well-liked by everybody.

Speaking of which, here comes Scavenger. "Hello, Scavenger," Dead End begin. "Your room is right next to the med-bay. Right side."

"Alright," Scavenger replied and then asked, "where's the med-bay?" Dead End handed him a chart.

"Follow the signs."

"Okay," Scavenger said and walked off towards. As the door open, Scavenger accidently walked into Hook, causing them to fall to the floor together. Hook let loose a mild curse before getting up and walking towards Dead End. Scavenger, for his part, got out of there quickly. Hook walked up to Dead End and asked the question.

"Where's my room?"

"Right next to the Med-bay. Left side. Follow the signs."

"Got it." With that, he head off towards his room, leaving Dead End and Shockwave alone again. Shockwave took a look at his next file: Misfire.

Misfire's personal life before the war was that of an actor and he experience every phase an actor goes through. The crappy, low budget movies to a career defying role, to falling hard due to drugs. He then got off drugs, won the critics and fans back, obtain many a star role, and then fall back to obscurity again when he got addicted to drugs again.

When the war came, his agent recommend joining the war to get some more experience. He joined the Decepticons and went to military camp to learn how to shoot a gun and got clean from drugs. He ended failing numerous times that they gave him the nickname, 'Misfire.' He finally passed on the 4628th time when the place was bombed, letting him (technically) passed.

From there, he went and joined a trine with two seekers name Slugslinger and Triggerhappy. The group reportedly did well, with Slugslinger and Triggerhappy making up for Misfire failings. Although Misfire was a complete failure with a gun, he could reportedly, obliterate anybody in close range. He didn't lose any brawls with other seekers and ground-pounders and most people he fought ended up reporting to the med-bay to be fixed up.

Unfortunately, tragedy would come again when he went on a mission with his trinemates and several other people led by Blackout. Reports are unsure. But Misfire ended up messing up badly and ended up causing the deaths of everybody except a shifter named Makeshift. Makeshift testify that Misfire caused the death of most of the people, with the evidence to exactly what Makeshift said. Megatron, in response, put Misfire through some of the most brutal torture imaginable. It's unsure why he left Misfire live after that, but most people are of the opinion that it was to teach a lesson to all the incompetence would not be tolerated and had Misfire used as walking proof of that.

With that info dump done, Shockwave looked at the door, expecting Misfire to show up. Indeed, the door opened, but to let Swindle in instead of Misfire. "Hey there, I'm guessing the others have already came aboard except Misfire, right?" he asked them, not caring who answered.

"Yes, they did, except Misfire liked you said. Is he coming?" Dead End asked.

"Yeah, he just had to talk a little bit with Mixmaster before we left. While we're waiting for him, I'm going to start up the ship for lift off," Swindle said, heading for the cockpit. With the conversation done, Shockwave looked at the last file: Dead End.

Before the war, he was in a street racing gang in Ibex that was headed by his fellow Stunticon, Drag Strip. When the war began, Drag Strip almost immediately sigh up to fight for the Decepticons and convince Dead End to fight in it as well. Soon after, they join a gestalt program and were called the Stunticons. Shockwave remember them as the second combiner group he worked on, first being the Combaticons. He remember that the group was perhaps the most dysfunctional group of soldiers ever and could barely get along with each other and we're barely kept in place by their abusive leader, Motormaster.

Unfortunately, the group would not last. On a mission, Motormaster fall in battle, to unknown circumstances. Some say he was bombed by the enemy. Some say he was shoot by the enemy. Some say he was shot by friendlies. None of those were too far off, but people didn't bother looking into it due to the fact that Motormaster was one of the most hated people in the army. Eventually, the Stunticons strike off on their own, Dead End ending up here. He was efficient in his work, due to the fact that he always expected the worst to happen. Bad at conversation, but good at his job.

The ship came to life, getiing ready to go. At the same time, the door opened, letting in Misfire, who was carrying a big box with him. "Hey guys. Anybody knows where my room is?" he asked.

"Right next to Science lab, left side. Shockwave here has the right side," Dead End answered. Misfire looked at Shockwave who stared at him with his single optic.

"So, I guess we're roommates, kinda," Misfire said. Shockwave responded by looking back at him with his emotionless (and terrifying, to a lot of people) stare. Misfire took a sharp intake and looked at Dead End. "You're sure you can't put me in a different room?"

"We put you there for convenience sake. You and Shockwave are both going to be using the Science Lab, so we figure we put you there for easy access. Swindle here hasn't made signs for the Science lab due to the fact that the lab was a very recent addition."

"That's putting it lightly," Swindle called back from the cockpit. "Do you know how much moving I had to do. I have a lot of room, so I have a lot of storage on the ship. With the inclusion of everybody on the ship, I had to make room and I'm telling you right now, I'm not moving stuff out of the room so you can get a room away from Shockwave. You understand that?"

"Anyway, wait a few minutes and I'll take you and Shockwave to the labs. Swindle's given me a short tour of this ship and given me a good idea where everything is on this ship."

"Trust me, Dead End. I didn't give you a full tour of this ship. This ship has a lot of neat surprises. Oh, by the way, we're going to depart right about… now," Swindle said. At that moment, the ship went up suddenly, causing a temporarily lost of balance for everybody, but they quickly regain it. The ship went up and head for space at a good pace, vertically. More than a couple of people thought gravity would bring a lot of people down, but they didn't move. "By the way, I got gravity generators, so don't worry about losing much balance aside from the initial take-off, which we've already experience," Swindle said. Soon, the ship broke the atmosphere of the planet and into space.

With them breaking through space, Swindle got on the intercom. Attention everybody aboard the ship, we've have completed our departure of Dabola and are now heading to Primus knows where. My advice is for you to get set up in your rooms. We've officially started our hunt for whoever this guy is that killed Thundercracker. Good luck." With that done he got off the intercom. He looked back at the crewmate on the bridge. "Just to let you guys know, I have no idea where we're going."

XXX

Talos Four, Metalhawk Park, nighttime.

Bombline was walking through the park to the meeting point. Cooldown and Warmup were at a local bar while he took care of the transaction. He was heading to a bench where a figure was sitting. The bench had no light shine on it, leaving only the figure's silhouette show. From what he could see, he difently didn't had wings. Bombline walked up to the figure and gave him a chip. "Here is all the information we got from the place that you want." The figure took it and examined it.

"Good, I trust you wouldn't lie to me."

"It's bad business to rip people off."

"Very true. 50,000 shanix will be added to your account. Tell me, did you ran into any trouble?"

"Yes, we did. Just a little bit. We killed one of them, but the others got away."

"I'm surprise. Nobody goes to Cybertron anymore." The figure contemplated this. "Exactly what was the ship called."

"I didn't get a good looked, due to the fact that it was trying to killed me, but I think it was called 'The Merchant.'" The figure gave a sharp intake at that.

"I know who that ship belongs too." The figure contemplated it for a little bit. "Tell me, how do you feel about earning an extra amount of money?"

"What, exactly and how much."

"I know the captain of that ship. His name is Swindle. What I want you to do is simple: find the ship and bring me Swindle. 250,000 shanix if alive, 100,000 if he's dead." Bombline let out a little laugh.

"You really want to take him down, do you."

"It's personal between me and him. So, you're going to take this job?" Bombline thought this through. 250,000 shanix was a lot of money. It shouldn't too hard, either, if he can find a way around that ship. With this through, he looked at the figure and answered.

"You got a deal."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pilot ends here.


End file.
